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The Georgian household stands beside 

The coffiu where he h'es: 
They speak his praise with moi'.rnfiil pride 
Amid tlieir siglis. 

Sweet Southern plants their leaves expand, 

Though Spring has scarce begun— 
Does Winter come to this fair land 
Of liowers and sun * 

No purchased skill has draped the room: 

The ready hand we trace 
Of Love, which lightens up the gloom 
With tender grace. 

A Northern stranger, as I gaze. 

Come thronging thick and fast 
The memories of other days, 
Forever past. 

Once more I hear the fierce debate; 

I watch the rising tide 
Of headlong rage which would not wait, 
Nor turn aside. 

O, voice, which strove in that dark hour 

The tempest to restrain ! 
To save us was beyond your power. 
Your words were vain ! 

Could human strength avail to break 

Such torrents' awful flowt' 
Had we a choice which way to take? 
We may not know ! 

Could we have listened— bitter thought. 

When thinking comes too late!— 
Yet can we give him thanks who fought 
Against our fate! 

So, though a stranger, musing thus. 

My Northern eyes grow dim: 
The Union which is dear to us 
. . Was riaw Jo HIM ! 

.^PEAQKJfAjieR!'; let the word be wrought 

On monumental stone: 
t ,T^t PEAf ?, which for his land he sought, 

' " Is iio\f HIS OWN ! 

' ' •• E. N. R. I-. 

Atlanta, Ga., March 8, 18»J. 



^Icafatxiter |t* ^teytietis* 



^hc 5"^^tTt of (Son. ^tcpTteus. 

As CLEAN AND PURE, as able, strong and great a spirit as the 
world has ever shown, went to its final home of painless light at 
30 minutes after three o'clock, Sunday morning, March 4, 1883. 

As I stood on that crisp Sabbath day by the cold clay in the 
parlor of the Executive mansion, the caressing breezes, with gen- 
tle noise, stirring through the room and rustling the curtains audi- 
bly, I thought what a marvelous life that fragile and tortured 
casket held. For seventy-one years and twenty-one days this frail 
body had carried, take it all in all, the most famous and unspotted 
career of the last half century in this broad country. The familiar 
face in its last repose looked so natural ! The expression was as 
peaceful as in slumber, the features life-like, the only striking 
index of inner characteristic being ihe firm-set lips. The pictures 
of the man represent a low brow and small head. With the scant, 
silvered hair brushed back, the real majesty of his head was dis- 
closed, looking strangely broad and high, with a beautiful, expan- 
sive forehead, having the aspect of the massive. The slender 
figure was encased in his customary suit of simple black broadcloth, 
the bird-like hands, that with their white, nervous eloquence moved 
the historic roller-chair, folded in gloves across his breast. 

Sad as was the sight, I could but think it was a fit ending of a 
noble life. The great old man died in official harness, the chief 
magistrate of his loved State, in the unabated vitality of his facul- 
ties. For nearly fifty years he had been in distinguished public 
trust, and he flashed out gracing the most exalted duty of all. 



ftt Pcmovy. 



The circumstaiK'cs of his last ilhiess were peculiarly touching. 
Ho had returned from Savannah, where he had been the vital and 
historic figure of the Sesqui-Centennial. On his arrival he took 
his bed and never rose from it again. The Sabbath morn wit- 
nessed his return home; the Sabbath morn two weeks later wit- 
nessed his gentle fading out. It can hardly be said that his trip 
to Savannah caused his disease. Its fatigue undoubtedly helped 
the sad death. He was taken sick riding up in a carriage with a 
broken glass; the sharp morning draft chilled him and brought 
on his old neuralgia of the bowels. The attack was very severe. 
His digestive organs were so struck as to lose him voluntary con- 
trol of them. Powerful opiates and astringents checked his disease, 
but left him very ill. His delicate organism became fearfully 
disordered. Perhaps had he have had the care that knew liis 
phenomenal system he might have improved. No one can tell. 
He had honest attention. He, however, did executive work in 
bed, and he saw everybody. And all this time the brave and very 
sick old statesman was weakening daily. He first could not hold 
nourishment; that overcome, he had hourly nausea; that baffled, 
lie then could not sleep. It seemed as if the angel of death was 
after him. 

For ten days there was no lull in his clearness of mind. He 
was bright and alert, knowing everybody, talking cheerfully, doing 
business, dictating letters. A day or two after he was taken, when 
he was in much jxiin, his digestion uncontrolled, and he sick with 
morphine, for a moment he surmised of death as a possibility, but 
it was only for a moment, and on Wednesday he said he would be 
up the next day. Some one sent him some oranges — a box from 
Savannah. He had Aleck, his boy, sort them out, and then he 
divided the thirty good ones into fifteen piles of two each, and 
every member of the household, white and black, old and young, 
by name received a sunny brace of the golden fruit in token of his 
remembrance. 

When he first came into the mansion, he took the room at the 
end of the hall on the left going in, with its little cosy ante- 
chamber. He put out the large, stately state bedstead, and used 



:^k.vajuUv pawiltott <f tfirltfujs. 



a cheaper single bed, wliicli lie j)laced in the off corner, heading 
north and footing south, after the rule of his life. In the opposite 
corner he had Aleck's cot placed. He bought a clock the first thing, 
and then a table and frame of pigeon-holes for papers, and li(>re 
he did most of his work. Colonel Seidell was always ou hand to 
write as he dictated. He received company here, and made it his 
home and office. One of his roller-chairs he had carried to the 
Governor's office in the capitol, for use whenever he should ride 
down. And there it is now, and there it should be permitted to 
remain, a typical reminder of the great old man. He occupi(!(l it 
a few times during the session of the Legislature, but since then 
he has been waiting for the warm, sunny days of human summer 
which will never come to him. 

As he took more rest and checked his nausea, those near to him 
had faith in his recovery. He had been many times nearer to 
death, and survived. He did not assimilate his food, however, 
and he began to be restless. His sleep was not refreshing. His 
doctors stopped the current of visiting, and cut off work, tfc; 
began to wander in the delirium of morphine, to mutter in his 
naps, to make scraps of speeches and rehearse his office business. 
The brain was at work upon the weakness of inanition. His 
intervals of clearness, however, reconciled those around him. He 
said, with a smile, to his private secretary, who was urging food 
on him, "Seidell, don't you know you oughtn't to feed a horse till 
he whickers?" He signed Senator Colquitt's certificate, also war- 
rants for the payment of money ; and on Wednesday, the 28th, he 
signed a remission of a fifty dollars fine for a man named, curi- 
ously, John Stephens, from Fulton county, who had committed an 
assault and battery. This was his last official act. 

Dr. Steiner came Friday afternoon. He came from the death- 
bed of Gen. Dudley M. DuBose — Governor Stephens' predecessor 
in Congress in the Eighth District — to Governor Stephens' death- 
bed. I shall always hold in mind the slender figure of Dr. Steiner, 
with cool, gracious courtesy and intelligent but self-poised intejisity 
of interest, sitting for nearly thirty-six hours beside his illustrious 
patient, battling against death to save his friend as he had so often 



f n P«muvy. 



saved him. I could but think of Governor Stephens wanting him, 
a year ago, to stay and see him die; and this time, after the first 
recognition and invitation, his lying in the busy activity of his 
errant brain, oblivious of the devoted friend and physician who, 
with hand on his pulse, sat in steady vigilance to give the sufferer 
recovery. 

When Dr. Steiner first came, he saw his patient with improved 
capacity for nourishment and freedom from nausea, and with his 
vital organs unattacked. He was hopeful. Up to noon Saturday 
there was no sign of the end. Nourishment had been taken, but 
there was that restlessness to conquer and sleep to woo for the 
patient, or there was peril. Food enough had been taken to 
replenish the waste; the organs were all right; but the nervous 
system must be rested, and sleep only could do this. 

Running into the night, there began to be an ominous sinking. 
There was a diminishing pulse to alarm. Dr. Steiner had resolved 
to give chloral, if necessary, to secure the needed sleep. 

" The Governor is dying ! " 

This was the message that greeted all comers about ten o'clock. 
In the parlor fronting the quiet group was the Stephens historic 
chair, empty and desolate looking. So long had he lived with it, 
so intimately had its life been interwoven with his, so completely 
had it pulsed and throbbed and quivered under the touch of his 
gentle fingers, and so faithfully had it responded to his slightest 
impulse, and interpreted his innermost and unuttered thoughts, 
that it seemed to be part of him as it sat there so still and silent. 

As the rooms were filling gradually the other parlor was lighted, 
and the whole lower floor was lit up just as it was when, a few 
months ago, many of the same persons who were then present had 
escorted Mr. Stephens, amid the applause and enthusiasm of a vast 
crowd, to his first night in the mansion. The callers made sad 
groups in the parlors, the library or the hall, and talked in low 
tones. As one of the doctors came from the sick man, he was at 
once surrounded by questioners. The steady response was : " He 
is sinking rapidly, and can live but a few moments." Even after 
all hope had been abandoned by those who knew best, many clung 



^k.va«(Iev Tiamilt0tt ^^t^ph^ttis. 



to the idea that tlie Governor would still fight his way through 
the cloud that gathered about him. 

Drs. Miller and Steiner remained at Mr. Stephens' bedside 
almost constantly. In the bedroom were only the physicians and 
relatives of the Governor. No one was denied admission, and 
many friends paused in the door for a moment. The Governor 
was lying on the front part of the bed. He was very much ema- 
ciated, and his pallor was intense. He seemed to be in no pain 
whatever, but breathed heavily with apparent efibrt. His eyes 
were half closed, and wore a strained expression. His left hand 
was resting on his breast and his right hand lost beneath the cover. 

At about two o'clock in the morning it was evident that Mr. 
Stephens was much weaker, and that a crisis was approaching. 
The doctors had prepared a strong mustard plaster and put it on 
his wrist. They let it remain there for perhaps twenty minutes. 
When they removed it there was not the slightest sign of inflam- 
mation, showing that there was very little vitality left. At about 
half-past two his extremities became cold and clammy, assuming 
a purplish hue. Dr. Miller said : 

"The end is not far off." 

As the close drew near, Mr. Stephens was lying on his back, 
with his head turned slightly to the right. The husky rattle in 
his throat that had been plainly perceptible earlier in the night 
had ceased entirely. There was no more heavy breathing, and not 
the slightest gasping. He was as quiet as a baby asleep in its 
mother's arras. Dr. Miller held his slender wrist anxiously. The 
tired pulse had almost ceased to beat. Only once in a while could 
the trained fingers detect a flickering throb, as the ebbing tide 
wasted slowly away. 

At three o'clock Drs. Steiner and Raines, who had gone to sleep, 
were awakened. When Dr. Steiner reached his bedside, Mr. Ste- 
phen^ was very much weaker. Two ladies, Mrs. Stephens and 
Mrs. Grier, who had retired for a little sleep, entered the room and 
took their place by the bed. There was then present, besides those 
and the physicians, Hon. J. T. Henderson, Judge Hall, Col. John 
A. Stephens, A. L. Kontz, T. B. Bradley, C. W. Seidell, R. K. Paul, 



gjt pUmovy. 



and two colored servants. The breathing grew fainter and fainter, 
but there was not the slightest disturbance on the |)allid face. At 
length Dr. Steiner lifted the wrist, and bent with intentness over 
the bed. He then drew back, and i)ntting on his glasses, looked 
into Gov. Stephens^ face and said : 

" I'm afraid he is gone." 

This was precisely at twenty-four minutes past three. 

After another earnest look he said : 

" He is dead !" 

So gently had the golden cord been loosened ! that not even the 
physician who stood with his hand upon the wrist, knew when the 
last link had slipped asunder. 

As one stood looking at the worn and wasted frame, rocked and 
tossed and strained for so many years, but now at peace at last, 
and thought of the bitter and persistent fight against pain and suf- 
fering now so softly ended, that quaint quotation of Judge Logan 
E. Bleckley's came into mind — 

" How costly is life — at what heavy expense 
Do we temper the blood and nourish the sense ; 
But death unto all is offered so cheap, 
It is but closing the eyes and ceasing to weep." 

It is uncertain what were the last words uttered by the great 
statesman before his death. It seems to be agreed that his last 
clearly conscious conversation was with Dr. Steiner. Mr. Seidell 
says that Saturday afternoon he recognized Mr. John A. Stephens, 
his nephew. Mr. Stephens asked the Governor if he knew him, 
and he replied, " Yes, it's John." Dr. Raines says further, that 
after this occurrence he was attending to some of his wants, and 
moving him in his bed, when he said: 

" Doctor, you hurt me." 

Dr. Raines says that those were the last words he ever uttered. 
This was purely an accidental exclamation. If this be true — and 
there is no report of words uttered after these — it is a strange fate 
that the last words wrested from Mr. Stephens' pallid and drawn 
lips should be an appeal against the physical agony with which 



g^IcxHttdcr llnmiWott .ftfph^tt^. 



liis whole life had been racked. For more than half a century the 
spirit of pain had clouded his existence, freighted his every breath 
with suffering. And at last, when the shadows of death had 
gathered about his bedside, and the compassionate mercy of God 
seemed to have tempered the pangs of dissolution, his old enemy, 
relentless and unsparing, invaded even that presence, defied even 
that mercy, and inspired the last language his trembling lips 
should utter upon this earth. 



l^tXcctiu^ of ^Vomiucut CltUcns. 

By common consent, a call was circulated for a meeting of 
citizens and state and county officials, to be held at the Senate 
chamber at three o'clock Sunday afternoon. Among those present 
were Judge Bleckley, School Commissioner Orr, Senator Hoyt, 
Dr. J. S. Lawton, Mr. A. M. Reinhardt, W. P. Inmau, Hon. 
Henry Jackson, Malcolm Johnson, W. J. Garrett, Hon. Lowndes 
Calhoun, Amos Fox, Colonel Mark Johnson, W. D. Ellis, John 
Stephens, A. J. McBride, Judge M. J. Crawford, J. L. Brown, 
Dr. W. F. Westmoreland, S. M. Inman, Hon. E. P. Howell, 
ex-Gov. J. M. Smith, City Attorney Newman, D. P. Hill, all the 
State-house officials, ex-Senator Duncan of Douglas, ex-Mayor 
English, James P. Harrison, John L. Wing and Judge Hall. On 
ihe left side of the chamber sat the entire city government — the 
Mayor, the Board of Alderman, and the City Council. While 
they came to the meeting as citizens, Mayor Goodwin stated that 
they were ready to take any action that was thought proper. 

On motion of Judge Hoyt, Senator Colquitt was called to pre- 
side. On taking the chair. Senator Colquitt said that the meeting 
had convened to confer as to what measures should be taken to 
express the deep regret of ihe people over the death of Governor 
Stephens. 

On motion of Mr. Reinhardt, Mr. H. W. Grady was requested 
to act as secretary of the meeting. 



10 In Pemova. 



Colonel I. W. Avery, of the executive office, arose and said : 

"I will state for the information of the meeting that the present 
idea as to the funeral services of Governor Stephens is, that the 
funeral is to take place on Thursday afternoon ; that the body of 
the deceased will be brought to the capitol to-morrow, to lay in 
state until the burial services ; that the body is to be put in our 
cemetery here for the present, leaving the question of permanent 
burial to be determined hereafter. The object of this meeting 
now is for our citizens to unite in carrying out the programme, 
that we may do full honor to the illustrious dead. In order to 
bring before the meeting a beginning of business, I move that a 
committee of fifteen citizens, of which the chairman of this meeting 
shall be chairman, shall be appointed, to take the matter in charge 
and to make all the arrangements." 

Mr. J. H. Lumpkin seconded the motion, which was carried. 
The chairman announced the result, and the committee was then 
appointed as follows : A. H. Colquitt, chairman ; Mayor Goodwin, 
Hon. M. J. Crawford, Hon. J. M. Smith, Captain Henry Jackson, 
Julius L. Brown, R. W. Horsey, Robert J. Lowry, S. M. Inmau, 
Judge L. E. Bleckley, Hon. W. L. Calhoun, Elias Hairaan, John 
Stephens, P. L. Mynatt, Wellborn Hill, B. H. Hill, Jr., Patrick 
Walsh. 

SPEECHES. 

Judge Hoyt said : 

"As this is the first meeting that has been held, and as it is 
Sunday afternoon, it seems to me that it might be proper to have 
some resolutions presented and passed ; but I suppose that, as the 
meeting has been called hurriedly, no one has prepared any such 
resolutions. It would afford me great pleasure to hear some re- 
marks on Mr. Stephens' life from some gentleman, especially one 
who has been a life- long friend of our honored dead. I refer to 
Hon. Martin J. Crawford, and I move that he be requested to 
make some remarks." 



^Icxaudft llamilton <^teirheu.$. 11 



Judge Crawford arose and said, with evident feeling: 

" I know of nothing which I could say that would add to the 
high opinion which not only the gentlemen present, but the people 
of the State of Georgia and the United States, have of our late 
Governor. It is true that 1 have known him intimately for the 
last twenty-five or thirty years, and I have known no better man 
during that time. I have seen him under circumstances well 
calculated to test his patriotism and his courage. I was with him 
once in Richmond in 1862, when Forts Donaldson and Henry had 
fallen, and when we were about to leave the provisional Congress 
late at night, when we both had great apprehensions for the future; 
and when I took leave of him he was in great anxiety of mind as 
to the situation in which the country was at that time. He said 
to me: 'The Confederacy is lost. I have no positive information 
of the dangers that threaten us by the probable fall of these forts, 
but I am sure that it is so. We may not meet again, and you are 
going. My duties call me here, and I shall remain at the post of 
duty ; but I say to you here to-night ' — and there was no one to 
witness our parting or to hear what he said ; nor was there any- 
thing of acting in it — he was not playing the part of an actor. He 
laid his head upon my shoulder and wept, and said that he did 
not care to survive the liberties of his country. The scene was 
exceedingly affecting to me, sir. I have seen him on many occa- 
sions before and after. I saw him once in early morning, when a 
little errand boy from a store on Pennsylvania avenue came to our 
room. We were then living together. He came up to bring a 
piece of silver plate. He was twelve years old, unknown to Mr. 
Stephens and unknown to me. He called him up and asked him 
his name, and put his hand upon his head. He had no interest in 
the boy, but he talked with him about his condition. Whilst he 
was in conversation with him, the breakfast bell summoned us to 
breakfast. He told the little boy to lay off his wraps, put his hat 
upon our table, and join us in breakfast. The little boy thanked 
him, and told him that he had had breakfast. But Mr. Stephens 
said that a boy scarcely ever saw a time when he could not eat a 



12 i« IHftuovy. 



meal. He arose and put his arm around him, and carried him in, 
and made him join us in breakfast; talked with him kindly and 
affectionately, and said many things to him which it is unnecessary 
for me to repeat, but it satisfied me of the goodness and kindness 
that were in the man's heart. There was nothing like policy in 
what he did. The boy could not serve the great Mr. Stephens, 
then a member from the State of Georgia, but it showed the char- 
acter of the man — what sort of a heart he had in his body. 

" Soon thereafter we had to leave the city of Washington. We 
concluded to call and take our leave of the President. As we 
were going, he turned up Sixth street and said he would detain 
me but a moment. As he got out of the carriage to enter a house, 
a little girl came running to him, and shouted to her mother that 
Mr. Stephens had come. I did not know who she was. The 
little girl kissed him, and said he had been so kind, and she was 
delighted to see him. He said he had called to take his leave. I 
overheard what passed between them. He had been dividing his 
income with that poor family. He never, as you know, was a 
man of wealth, but he was dividing the little that he had with 
them. Upon our return home we found letters upon his table — 
or rather he found them. Two or three were from those to whom 
he was rendering aid in getting an education. I heard him talk 
often of the various young men and girls that he assisted. I know 
the good that he did. I know that he has educated and helped to 
educate one hundred and twenty-two young men — or, perhaps, 
young men and ladies together. Georgia never lost a better man 
than Alexander H. Stephens. I knew his heart. If you did him 
a wrong, and there was a good construction that he could place on 
what you had done, he would place the good construction on your 
act, and lay no blame on you. There are many instances that I 
might mention, Mr. Chairman, showing his character and goodness 
of heart. Really, whilst he had no family to love, he had others 
to whom he was greatly devoted. One of the evidences of his own 
goodness of heart is, that there are so many people who feel that 
they are the nearest to him. No one is beloved who does not him- 
self love others. One reason of his popularity was because of the fact 



§^U,vatt(kv Pamiltott ^ti^plt^us*'. 13 



that he had great love for the people. Mr. Chairman, this call 
was unexpected. I regret that I did not know that something of 
the sort would be done, that I might do justice to this great and 
good man." 

At the conclusion of Judge Crawford's remarks, Senator Col- 
quitt was called for, and responded as follows : 

'* I \ ould respond with very great pleasure to this call, but I 
do not feel that I could do any sort of justice to my own sensibili- 
ties or to the subject, arising upon an occasion of this sort, when it 
was so little expected. There was present to my mind, during the 
remarks of Judge Crawford, an illustration that came under my 
own eye of how he loved others, and how disinterested he was in 
his work of doing good. At a meeting of the board of trustees of 
the University of the State of Georgia, Mr. Jackson Lewis, the 
principal of the Dahlonega Institute, arose and spoke of how a 
young man was being educated at Dahlonega, and what self-denial 
he practiced, and what he had accomplished. He had exhausted 
all the means that had been furnished him. Those means had 
been furnished by a friend. The young man was then (during 
vacation) seeking employment and trying to get up a little school, 
so that he might make enough money to provide for his expenses 
during the term. Mr. Stephens was present at the meeting of the 
board, and was in one of the alcoves, sitting off from the board of 
trustees. At last it was said, ' And by-the-by, that is the young 
man that Mr. Stephens sent to Dahlonega.' Mr. Stephens quietly 
rolled his chair into the company of trustees, and said, ' Yes, and 
he is going back.' That intimation was enough. It was well 
understood that however unfortunate a young man might be in 
providing means, this man who had done so much for him thus 
far intended to continue his benefactions. I learned something of 
the history of that boy. He was a plain, country boy, and lived 
some distance from a village, worked upon the farm, plowed and 
hoed, but felt, as he was doing this daily work, the longings for 
an education and for a better condition for himself. His family 



14 Mn P^motij. 



did not have the means of supplying him so that he could have 
an education. In going up, one Sunday, to a Baptist Association, 
in a casual conversation where there were some gentlemen present, 
this poor boy said, ' I would like to have an education,' and some 
one present said, ' Suppose you go and see Mr. Stephens.' He 
worked upon a neighboring farm at twenty-five cents a day to pay 
his fare upon the cars to the town of Crawford vi lie, where Stephens 
then was. There he made his way, with his plain country garb of 
homespun and home-made clothing — a green country youth. He 
took his place in the cars and was carried to Crawfordville, where 
he stepped off a stranger. He hardly knew w^hat to do, and in 
his perplexity he had forgotten the name of the man to whom he 
was directed. Hardly knowing what to do, he turned around to 
those who were idling about the depot, and asked, ' Whar is that 
man that educates poor boys?' Every finger there pointed to the 
mansion on the hill known as Liberty Hall. It is a sad thought 
that the poor boys of the future, when they shall feel the ambi- 
tious longings for an education, cannot now be pointed to Liberty 
Hall, but will be pointed to the grave upon which the tears of 
Georgians will shed a grateful shower of blessings. His life will 
be taken up and written — his j)ublic life and character — but such 
circumstances as these will always make him endeared all over 
Georgia." 

Hon. G. J. Orr, State School Commissioner, made a short ad- 
dress, referring to the statement that Mr, Stephens had educated 
one hundred and twenty-two young men and ladies. He spoke 
of several instances, and referred to the great interest that Mr. 
Stephens took in the matter of education. In speaking of educa- 
ting young men. Dr. (Jrr said : 

" I presume it is true that he has done more in this particular 
way, perhaps, than any other man that ever lived in Georgia; and 
he did not confine his benefactions to the white race within my 
knowledge. I mention it to his credit here to-day, that one 
colored student, who had been a servant of his brother, the late 



gtlfx'jtttrtft pamittott ^t^plicnisi. 15 



Judge Stephens, has been to my office repeatedly. He is supported 
largely by Mr, Stephens. I could state some very interesting 
details in connection with that, but I forbear." 

Captain Henry Jackson spoke as follows, when Dr. Orr had 
concluded : 

" I wish to refer for a moment to one element of his character 
that has struck me with force. Allusion has been made already 
to his tenderness of heart and kindness of disposition. I desire to 
speak of his immovable firmness. It was a combination of the 
two elements that made him the great man that he was. I refer 
to this now, because not very long since quite an active campaign 
was passed through, with Mr. Stephens at the head of the party, 
and I was in such a position that I had to see him almost daily in 
reference to the questions of principle and policy. I remember 
that soon after the nomination the Democratic party of the State 
seemed to be somewhat panic-struck as to the result. A meeting 
of the executive committee was called to meet here, and a large 
number came. The party was considered in great danger, and we 
deliberated seriously to fix up a plan of operations, and arrange 
what Mr. Stephens should do. We then called on Mr. Stephens 
in a body, and laid down what should be his movements. Why, 
Mr. Chairman, he disposed of every question presented with a 
degree of decision and firmness that astonished every gentleman 
present. The recommendation of the committee as to where he 
should go and what he should do, seemed not to affect hira one 
iota. There was decision of character. He decided upon his 
course and he acted, with a result that the people of Georgia 
already know. Again, during the campaign a committee of gentle- 
men called on me and stated that they represented the temperance 
movement in Georgia; that they controlled from twenty-five to 
thirty thousand votes, and that every one of them would be voted 
against Mr. Stephens unless he came out in a letter to them, stating 
that he would approve certain legislation that was expected to be 
passed by the Legislature. They stated that they had letters from 



16 ftt Pcmory. 



the opposition candidate to that effect, and that it was necessary to 
save this vote that he should take a firm stand. A few days after, 
Mr. Stephens arrived in the city, and I called upon him and laid 
the case before him. What was his reply? 'They say they have 
twenty-five thousand votes to vote against me? In the first place, 
I don't believe it ; and if they had five hundred thousand votes to 
poll against me and overwhelm me, there is no power on this earth 
that can make me, in advance of my election, commit myself to 
any action when I shall become Governor of the State of Georgia. 
If I am elected, I take the executive office free and untrammeled, 
to perform the duties that the constitution puts upon me when the 
occasion is presented.' Mr. Chairman, this whole afternoon, days, 
could be consumed in citing instances of the kindliness of that 
man's heart. I knew him but slightly ; and yet, in the slight 
acquaintance that I had with him, it shone forth like the rays of 
the sun — everywhere. Surrounded by men of the highest position, 
no man ever entered his office, even to the humblest negro, who 
did not receive every consideration. All men, high or low, re- 
ceived the same consideration at his hands. Why, during the 
Sesqui-Centennial — the last public act in which he was engaged — 
as he would ride through the streets in his carriage, escorted by 
the first people of the State, it would be stopped to allow him to 
speak to the poor and the colored people. It was a combination 
of gentleness of heart, love of the human race, and great firmness 
of character in what was right, that made him the great man that 
we shall soon commit to the grave." 

Judge Logan E. Bleckley spoke as follows, following Captain 
Jackson : 

" It was the character of completeness that struck me in Mr. 
Stephens. It seems to me that it was that which accounts for 
those special traits. He was a complete man. If you study him, 
he had a breadth and comprehensiveness very unusual. Take, for 
instance, his powers as a human being. He was a great thinker 
and a great speaker. He had the gift of expression by voice and 



^U.van(Ur Ihimilton ^tfplims. 17 



gesture. And then he was a great writer. In the combination of 
these powers he seems to me to surpass any other public man that 
we have had. If you will throw your mind back on the past 
history of the State, it is impossible to select one man who excelled 
him in these three characteristics — thinker, speaker and writer; 
and then he was an actor. He was practical, and had an adapta- 
tion to life in all its phases and all its gradations, from the lowly 
to the high. He could contract and expand — go out and come in ; 
he was a man all over. That was Mr. Stephens. I say I shall 
remember him more for his completeness than anything else, and 
all his life presents that characteristic. He has done a complete 
work, he has lived a complete life, and it mitigates the sorrow at 
his death. We do not feel as we do when a common mortal dies. 
It seems that he has fallen upon the right time to live and the 
right time to die, and we can say, ' Farewell, our friend ; your 
work is finished.' There is a completeness even about his work, 
and it is in a certain sense a sort of pleasure to meet death when 
it falls upon such a life; and even now, as he lays there, he does 
not look like he had died. He looks like he simply sleeps after 
all his work. It is perfectly marvelous — wonderful. He was no 
man to start with, physically. He has lived out seventy-one years, 
and his life presents a picture of completeness, mentally, morally, 
and in the work of a man." 

Major Sidney Herbert then s})oke : 

" Mr. Chairman : I did not anticipate that any addresses 
would be made at this preliminary meeting, nor did I expect to 
offer any suggestions. I came in my editorial capacity, simply to 
record the proceedings for the daily journal which I represent. 
Judge Bleckley's remarks in regard to Governor Stephens, his 
complete life and character, prompt me, however, to add a few 
words of confirmation to what the Judge has so concisely and 
appropriately said. 

" In looking over this audience, I recognize no one present who 
ever saw Governor Stephens when the Angel of Death appeared 



18 ifn Pcmovy. 



to be standing- at his betlsitle, and the mind of the great statesman 
was unclouded. Last night he was in a deep stupor, as he liad 
been most of the time for several days, and his spirit passed from 
its frail tenement without a sign of recognition or a parting word 
for the loved ones around his death-bed. 

"But on January 7th, 1876, at 'Liberty Hall,' I witnessed 
quite a different scene. Mr. Stephens was suffering from one of 
the severest attacks of his life, and his physicians — including Dr. 
Steiner — and the family had given up all hopes of his surviving 
the night. 1 had been with Mr. Stephens during two previous 
critical attacks, but had never seen him so perfectly resigned and 
so ready to go. He considered his life complete. I never saw a 
m5re beautiful exhibition of pure Christian resignation than was 
there exhibited. Mr. Stephens talked to me freely of his condi- 
tion, expressing the firm conviction that he had but a few hours 
more to live on earth. He had let go his grasp upon everything 
of a worldly nature, and remarked that his life work was complete; 
that he had nothing to finish, no higher honors to seek ; that he 
was satisfied with his life, its labors and its rewards, and was ready 
to obey the summons of the Angel of Death. There were no 
weeping eyes, no sad faces around that couch of pain. The dearest 
heart that loved him best and would miss him most could neither 
weep nor mourn in such a presence. There lay the great states- 
man, the victim at times of the most excruciating pains, calmly 
awaiting the end. His mind was as clear and strong and serene 
as ever, and a placid smile rested on his pale, emaciated face. No 
word fell from his lips that was not full of Christian faith and 
hope, and that did not breathe a spirit of perfect resignation and 
entire satisfaction. The 'Sage of Liberty Hall' robbed death of 
all its terrors, and made it impossible to turn his sick-room into a 
place of weeping and mourning. 

" That scene transpired seven years ago, and yet what great 
services Governor Stephens has performed since ! If his life and 
labors were complete then, and he was ready to go, how much 
more complete were they last night when his spirit soared away to 
the mansions of the blest. It is true that he left no evidence of 



g^U.VHnrtev ilamiUon ^tejjluttjsi. 19 



his faith and hope and lesiguation in iiis last hours, because of the 
failure of his meutal faculties; yet I am confident, judging from 
his condition during several severe attacks of illness, that had his 
mind remained unclouded, Governor Stephens on his death-bed 
would have re-enacted the scenes of January 7, 1876. If he was 
satisfied then with his labors and rewards, how much more satisfied 
would he have been last night. The past seven years have been 
full of labor and rich with rewards. And as to his Christian 
faith and hope. Governor Stephens needed no death-bed testimony 
to his pure, sincere and abiding faith in his sainted mother's 
precious Saviour. Seven years had increased and strengthened 
and made only more marked the religious elements of his character. 
As Judge Bleckley has said, it was a complete life — a life, I may 
add, that would have been complete in the best sense, though it 
had ended thirty years ago ; for Mr. Stephens, of my own knowl- 
edge, always conformed his life and labors to the idea that both 
were liable at any moment to a sudden termination. 

" Captain Jackson has referred to firmness as a characteristic of 
Governor Stephens, and one not generally made prominent in 
speaking of his marked qualities. Few people are aware that 
firmness was one of the foundation principles of Mr. Stephens' 
character. While it is true that he was generous to a fault, and 
kindly in his nature to all who needed his sympathy, yet, when 
occasion required, he could be as firm and immovable as the rock 
of Gibraltar. I remember an instance at ' Liberty Hall.' A 
farmer to whom Mr. Stephens had advanced money for making a 
crop, disregarding his obligations to his benefactor, had made au 
attempt to sell his cotton in a manner calculated to deprive Mr. 
Stephens of his just dues. The offender was caught and brought 
before Mr. S. in his sick-room. I shall never forget the just and 
firm manner in which the great statesman unfolded the base 
ingratitude of the man he had befriended, and how unrelentingly 
he insisted upon the enforcement of his claims. Had misfortune 
overtaken this farmer, and he appealed to Mr. Stephens for addi- 
tional aid, it would have been cheerfully granted ; but there was 
a sense of justice in the ' Great Commoner's' breast that made him 



20 in Pcmovy. 



as firm to resist wrong as he was yielding to the calls of suffering 
humanity. In marked (contrast was a scene I witnessed in the 
rooms of Mr, Stephens at a hotel in this city several years ago, 
and which 1 have never before made public. The 'Sage of 
Liberty Hall' was surrounded by quite a number of the most 
eminent men in the State, who had called to pay their respects, 
when I quietly informed him that Dr. B., from the Surgical 
Institute, had come. Excusing himself to his distinguished visit- 
ors, Mr. Stephens rolled his chair to the opposite corner of the 
room, and I presented Dr. B. It seems that Mr. S. had sent 
a poor crippled negro boy from his county to the institute, and 
was anxious to hear from the doctor if there was any chance to 
improve his condition. On being informed that there was, Mr. S. 
told the doctor to keep the boy at the institute, and send the bill 
for all expenses to him at Washington, where he was then going. 

" Such was the simple, humane character of Governor Stephens. 
Above the congratulations and compliments of Georgia's distin- 
guished citizens, he placed the relief and comfort of that poor 
crippled negro boy ; and yet he performed this mission of mercy 
so quietly and secretly that it has remained hidden from the public 
gaze until this most fitting moment. Now that the great and 
generous heart is still and pulseless, this noble deed of charity and 
love, like hundreds of others yet to be disclosed, may with appro- 
priateness be laid upon his bier. He was a great man because he 
was a good man — a complete character." 

Mr. J. C. Dunlap followed in some appropriate and earnest 
remarks, not reported. 



^laatttUv Hamilton ^ti^pttfM,$. 21 



^Ite g-eccivti\jc inxJltatiou. 

Atlanta, Ga., March 5th, 1883. 

Whereas, In the death of Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, Gov- 
ernor of Georgia, the State has not only lost an illnstrious citizen 
and chief magistrate, but the country at large has been deprived 
of one of the most venerated and distinguished statesmen and 
philanthropists of the age, and it is fitting that the fullest measure 
of respect should be paid to the memory of the deceased. 

The Governor of the State and a committee of citizens and of 
the General Assembly respectfully invite the citizens and officials 
of the State, members of the Legislature, judicial officers, county 
officials, civil, military, trade and other organizations of the State, 
and all classes and denominations, to attend the funeral obsequies 
of the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, at three o'clock p. m., Thurs- 
day, March 8th, 1883, in Atlanta. 

And the same day is set apart for general memorial services in 
this State, in memory of Governor Stephens, and the people are 
requested to observe the same. 

James S. Boynton, Governor. 

By the Governor : 

I. W. Avery, Sec^y Executive Department. 



Upon the suggestion of Hon. Patrick Walsh, in the committee, 
the Governor issued the following order : 

Executive Department, State of Georgia, 

Atlanta, March 6th, 1883. 
By James S. Boynton, Governor of said State : 

In respect to the memory of the venerated citizen of Georgia, 
Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, who died while occupying the exec- 
utive chair of the State ; in recognition of his illustrious public 



22 In Pftnovy. 



character and services, and in deference to the sentiment of the 
people, I, James S. Boynton, Governor of said State, do hereby 
set apart and appoint Thursday, the 8th day of March instant, the 
day designated for his burial, as a day of fasting and prayer and 
a memorial day, in honor of our deceased executive. 

And I do earnestly recommend that all the people of the State 
do assemble in their places of worship, and, with such other 
observances as they may deem fit, that they unite in the funeral 
obsequies of the great dead. 

Given at the executive office in Atlanta, this 6th day of March, 
1883, and of the independence of the United States of America, 
the one hundred and seventh. 

James S. Boynton, Governor. 

By the Governor : 

I. W. Avery, Sec^y Executive Department. 



gxom t\it (^{fvtvmx of ^outh (filatoUtta. 

State of South Carolina, 
Executive Chamber, Columbia, S. C, March 5. 
To the Governor of Georgia: 

There is the most profound sorrow amongst the people of South 
Carolina for the irreparable loss which Georgia and the country 
have sustained in the death of Governor Stephens. 

Hugh S. Thompson, Governor. 



^texatulev ftnmiltatt ^tephtus. 23 



gviluQ ill J»tatc, 

On Tuesday morning at half-])ast nine, the casket containing 
the remains of Governor Stephens was placed in a hearse and 
carried to the capitol under (he escort of the Governor's staff. 
The casket was placed in the Senate Chamber on a catafalque, 
directly in front of the President's stand. 

The body was under the charge of Colonel J. F. Burke, of 
Atlanta; Colonel William M. Sneed, of Savannah; Colonel J. S. 
Candler, of Atlanta; Colonel G. Gunby Jones, of Columbus; 
Colonel L. C. Jones, of Atlanta : Colonel Wikle, of Cartersville ; 
Colonel John Milledge, of Atlanta; and Colonel John C. Printup, 
of Rome, of the Governor's staif. 

The Senate Chamber was appropriately decorated. There was 
a profusion of flowers, and the chamber was filled with their 
delicate fragrance. They covered six tables that lined the aisle 
leading to the casket, and were placed in profusion upon the 
president's stand. The roller-chair was covered with them, and 
upon the casket rested a tiny bunch of hyacinths, placed there by 
a little son of Mr. John Stephens. The outside of the building 
was almost enveloped in the sombre drapery, while the stair-railing 
up to the last round was covered with the white and black that 
tell of sorrow. The columns, chandeliers, drapery, etc., were 
covered with the drapery. In the Senate Chamber the crape 
hung in festoons from the corners and sides of the room, and 
united at the chandelier in the centre. Above the speaker's stand 
was a floral arch bearing the words : " A Nation's Loss." The 
letters were of white flowers on a black ground, with a border of 
flowers. Around the president's stand was a drapery of crape, 
and at each corner a calla lily. Beneath the floral arch was Mr. 
Bradley's painting of Mr. Stephens, underneath which was the 
little poem by Mrs. Bryan. On one side of the stand was a floral 
star, and on the other a floral ship with the mast broken. In 
front of the stand was a large floral anchor, and leaning against 
the casket was a floral coat-of-arms of the State. The roller-chair 



was beside the casket. To the riglit was an oil painting of Mr. 
Stephens, made many years ago. The hlinds of tiie chamber were 
kept closed and the gas burning, thus heightening the effect and 
throwing a softness over the scene, which was deeply impressive. 
The crape, the (basket, the sad faces, the flowers doing their sad 
duty, the slow-moving and voiceless crowds that came and went, 
the knowledge that in the casket lay one dear to all Georgians, 
fdled everyone with a feeling of deep reverence and solemnity. 



p:ayov',s' ^rodamation. 

Mayor's Office, 
Atlanta, Ga., March 8, 1883. 
In recognition of the distinguished career and eminent virtues 
and services of the late Governor Alexander H. Stephens, deceased, 
all the people of Atlanta are hereby respectfully requested to 
attend the funeral ceremonies to-day, and to suspend business, 
especially during the afternoon. J. B. Goodwin, Mayor. 



"gilt pXovnino of tlvc f^xtucval gaiv 

The hall of the House of Representatives was packed b}' nine 
o'clock, although the services did not begin until half-past t€n. 
The desks had been taken out, thus adding vastly to the capacity 
of the hall, and every foot of the floor was covered. The galleries 
were packed almost to suffocation. 

At half-past ten, promptly, the committee, with the speakers, 
headed by Senator Colquitt, walked down the aisle and took seats 
reserved for them near the speaker's stand. 

Arising, amid perfect silence, Senator Colquitt called the meet- 
ing to order by saying : 

"Let us have perfect silence. The simple services of this hour 
Mall be opened with prayer by Dr. Adams, of Augusta." 



3lU.\'an(Ur futmilton ^tfphcns. 25 



Dr. Adams, in a voice full of emotion, prayed as follows: 

" Let us pray. Oh, Thou iniinite, wise, and good and holy 
Being, we invoke Thy presence and blessings at this time. We 
pray Thee to tranquilize our minds and to influence our hearts. 
Give us love for Thee; give us a recognition of Thee. Help us 
to consent to Thy will and to accept the ways of Thy providence, 
and so fit us to-day for the duties that lie before us. And grant 
that throughout the whole of the proceedings of this day we may 
remember our own liabilities, our individual responsibilities, our 
obligations to them, the claim Thou hast upon ourselves and upon 
our services, and, emulating all that is good in others, aim at that 
high avocation and that entire consecration of all our powers to 
Thee, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen." 

Senator Colquitt then said : 

" Fellow-citizens : We assemble to-day in the presence and under 
the weight of a great sorrow. A great light has been extinguished; 
no, not extinguished, but only removed and fixed in a higher and 
purer atmosphere. The illustrious man, who in the sublimity of 
his repose lies in this capitol to-day, needs no word of ours to exalt 
his fame. A life distinguished by its usefulness, by its sufferings, 
by its triumphs, leaves nothing for the eulogist, and asks only for 
the office of the chronicler. 

" We come together as friends, as neighbors, as citizens, to speak 
of our loss, to recall his virtues and pour out our tears, and to 
solace our griefs by expressions of sympathy in this common 
calamity. Make every allowance for exaggerations and the fond- 
ness of our love — for the fervid ascription which we make in the 
fresh hours of our grief — for the pride we feel as Georgians in this 
eminent, and now deceased, man, and then who can say where is 
to be found his equal in all the bright roll of the great names of 
all these States? Beginning life in poverty, circumscribed by a 
weak frame and a sickly body, which superadded a sensitiveness 
of double agony to his sufferings, this poor and delicate boy over- 



26 ftt Pfmovy. 



came every obstacle, mounted step by step every one of the rounds 
in the ladder of fame, and achieved an eminence that makes us as 
Georgians proud to-day, while Georgia and all Georgians bend 
over his grave with sorrow and with tears. What fajue, what 
fortune, has he left us to treasure and to cherish ! 

'' To the appointed orators of this occasion I leave the discussion 
of his characteristics, while I beg you to observe, with that solem- 
nity becoming this occasion, all that may be said in honor of his 
name. 

"There was a committee appointed upon the part of the citizens 
of this State to draft suitable resolutions. That committee is now 
ready to report, and I ask that the resolutions be read." 

General Gordon said : "* 

" Me. Chairman : The committee appointed to draft suitable 
resolutions on the occasion of the death of Georgia's illustrious 
Governor, in their effort to select special features for commenda- 
tion, have been almost embarrassed by the very multitude and 
variety of the materials before them. Totus terres rotundus was 
the description given by a classic author of a model of supreme 
excellence in another sphere. No life, no character in modern 
times more deserves such a tribute, for none were more comjdetely 
full and rounded than is the life and character of Alexander H. 
Stephens. Indeed, sir, his whole life, from boyhood to old age, 
is like some majestic globe, which, as you turn it, reveals with 
each revolution some new phase of beauty or feature of excellence 
to enlist our love and enchain our admiration. 

*' It will be true of him, sir, [ think, as of few men who have 
ever lived in any age or any country, that his fame and the appre- 
ciation of his services will increase rather than diminish as the 
years roll on. The closer the scrutiny, the more searching the 
inquiry into his private life and public services, the higher will 
rise the estimation in which future generations will hold him. 
Standing here, sir, as I do, in the presence of the lifeless form of 
this man whom I have known from my boyhood, and who, not- 



3llaatt(ter Pamiltott Stephens. 27 



withstanding ephemeral differences which have occurred here and 
there between us, I have never ceased to love, I feel like exclaiming, 
in the language of Ames over the dead body of him whose name 
our friend bore (Alexander Hamilton), that, looking back over his 
life, and 'penetrated with the remembrance of the man, my heart 
dissolves within me, and I could j)our it out like water.' Rome, 
sir, bequeathed to the world the name of a man as the symbol 
and synonym of virtue. Oh, my friends, could not Georgia more 
justly point to this her most illustrious son, as one whom each 
and every virtue might claim as its special representative? Your 
committee, sir, beg leave to submit the following resolutions: 

" Resolved, That in the death of Alexander H. Stephens, Georgia 
has lost her best beloved and foremost citizen, the Union one of its 
most able and enlightened statesmen, and the world an example of 
benevolence and humanity. 

" Resolved, That his catholic sympathies, embracing as they did 
all classes, colors and conditions — the whole family of man — 
rendered his life an example for the imitation of ourselves and of 
those who are to come after us. 

^^ Resolved, That not only with admiration but with astonishment 
we contemplate his life-long struggle against adverse circumstances, 
beginning with his career at college and ending only with the repose 
of the bier. He conquered poverty, debility, disease; and with skill 
unsurpassed and courage invincible, gathered imperishable honors 
in almost every sphere of intellectual activity, and fell at last a 
hero in full panoply, on the field of his fame, at the post of duty. 

'^Resolved, That the readiness with which he broke with political 
parties, when in his judgment they had wandered from the consti- 
tution of his country, and his brave support of the rights and 
privileges, as he conceived them, of all citizens, whether colored or 
of his own race, native or foreign born, illustrated his courage of 
conviction, which never failed him, and which was worthy the 
emulation of the young men of the State and country. 

" Resolved, finally. That while we do not present Mr. Stephens 
as infallible, we do point with sincere pride to the many-sided 



28 in Pnnonu 



intellect of" this remarkable man ; to his vast and various acquire- 
ments, all disciplined to usefulness and sanctified by the virtue 
of every-day Christian life; to his pre-eminence everywhere, in 
speculative as well as practical life; at the bar, on the hustings, 
in statesmanship, in the wider field of letters — rendering him a 
match for the mightiest, an all-accomplished man. 

" His fame will take care of itselt. He built his own monument 
in the heart of every Georgian, and his name will be canonized at 
the hearthstone of every home in his own State." 

Senator Colquitt then presented Judge Martin J. Crawford. 

"Again is Georgia called to the house of mourning. The reaper 
goes forth, and one after another is harvested unto death. Omit- 
ting the carnival of blood from 1861 to 1865, how often have we 
been called since those dark days to grieve over our first and 
foremost men. 

" We have stood and wept over the grave of the great Cobb, 
whose mighty brain and loving heart not only commanded the 
admiration, but won the affection of all who fell within the range 
of their influence. Johnson, too, the grand old Georgian who 
shed honor upon his native State, has passed away. Benning, the 
incorruptible and able judge, the gallant leader of a brigade in 
Longstreet's bloody corps, and who followed the plume of that 
great captain for four long, weary years — he, too, has been called 
away. Chappell, one of the noblest and purest of his race, sleeps 
his last sleep in the soil of the State he so long served and loved 
so well. Stephens, the younger, though he died in manhood's 
prime, has given himself an honored name and place with the 
great judges who in the past gave such grandeur to the Georgia 
bench. It was but yesterday that Warner, one of the most hon- 
ored of those upon whom Georgia ever placed the ermine, fell 
asleep among you, and u|)on that great judge we shall never look 
again. 

"Of course I need not remind this people that the evidences of 
Georgia's grief and the republic's sorrow have scarcely disappeared 



^Icvantlcv |'uuniUo« ^UpHfu.^i. 29 



over the new-made grave of Benjamin Harvey Hill. Whilst your 
sorrow for him still lingers, and there is yet a silent sadness in all 
hearts over his untimely death, yet we know that time and pressing 
events will gradually heal this wound in your breasts ; but we 
can't forget that there is one widowed heart which will continue 
to bleed and suffer while memory lasts, and no response can ever 
come to the names of husband and father from his last resting 
place on yonder hill. 

"And now again are we surrounded with new evidences of 
mourning. After the midnight watch of Saturday last had marked 
the time, and when this mighty city of struggling life and unceas- 
ing activity had been hushed into silence, and just before the 

" ' Morn, waked by tlie circling hours, 

With rosy hands unbarred the gates of light,' 

the heart of another great Georgian ceased its weary throbbings, 
and the spirit winged its way to its eternal home to join the mother 
whose image was ever present with him during his long and event- 
ful life. The death of Governor Stephens was no surprise to him ; 
he had grappled with it a thousand times before, and never feared 
to face its grim presence, because he had lived for death as well 
as life. 

"Upon one occasion he said to me, ' How singular it is that all 
the important events of my life cluster about the anniversary of 
my birth.' 'Twas upon the day that he was chosen Vice-President 
of the Confederate States. And he further said, ' It would not 
surprise me if my death should come about that period of time.' 
And so it did ; about a fortnight only had he passed beyond that 
day. 

" But it is not of his public life to which I would invite your 
thoughts. My knowledge of him went into his private chamber, 
where the statesman and orator were laid aside, and his mind and 
thought were thrown wide open to my view. It was there, and 
there only, that the man's great heart was seen and felt and known. 
Often has he recounted to me the story of his early struggle, his 
ambition, his hopes and his success. He knew that the true 



30 i(n Pcmovy. 



measure of a man was what he made liimself, by the aids that 
providence and religion bestowed upon hin) ; this truth he realized, 
and saw that circumstances were but plastic elements for human 
will to mould into immortal form. Knowing this, the chart of 
life which he chose to guide him to a bright manhood may thus 
be stated : 

" ' Put out thy talents to their use, 
Lay nothing by to rust ; 
Give vulgar ignorance thy scorn, 
And innocence thy trust. 

' Rise to thy proper place in life. 
Trample upon all sin ; 
But still the gentle hand hold out 
To help the wanderer in. 

'So live in faith and noble deed, 
Till eaith returns to earth — 
So live that men may mark the time 
That gave such mortal birth.' 

How faithfully and how well has he kept along this line of life! 
His whole time has been employed in using his talents for the 
good of his country and his race — nothing has he laid aside to 
rust. For neatly a half century he has been a man of constant 
and unremitting labor; it gave him fame and gave him money. 
The former he has left to his country, but the latter — where has 
all that gone? I'he answer might well be made by thousands who 
have shared with him the money which he made. He gave them 
siielter, food and raiment, when there was no other hand to help. 
And asrain so miy-ht an answer come from more than a hundred 
of those whose minds have been stored with useful knowledge by 
his timely aid. He administered his estate himself, and his heire 
may be found everywhere along his path of life. 

"Has he not also risen to his proper place in life?' Look at his 
successful professional career, his brilliant legislative service; these 
alone would be sufficient to stamp him one of earth's brightest 
minds. But these were only the first steps to that greatness which 



I^Uxandfv pamilton ^t«iJltfn.o. 31 



nearly forty years of congressional life added to his intellectual 
stature. He stood there, as he did everywhere, the peer of the 
brightest and the best. He was the pride of his party and the 
State. He was the Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, who was the great 
object of attraction and admiration to all who visited the national 
capital. He had more friends and fewer enemies than any great 
leader ever had. His opinions were sought after, because his 
judgment was so unerring. ] hiring his long period of public 
service, not a breath of suspicion ever rested upon his fair name. 
Honest and earnest in his convictions, he labored for their success, 
never denying to others the right which he claimed for himself — 
to think and act as to them seemed best. Whatever may have 
been the differences of opinion between himself and others, his 
loyalty to truth and right was never questioned. 

"True again to his chart of life, he has so lived in faith and 
noble deed that men have marked the time that gave him birth. 
Taking his life from its beginning to its end, who can say that it 
was possible for any one to have done more for his country and 
his race than he has done. It has been one of toil and pain, and 
most of his hardest years of labor he has done when his bed and 
roller-chair were his indispensable and only help. Yet, who of 
all his friends can say that they ever heard one murmur escape 
his lips because of his afSictious. 

"When we have looked at his delicate form in life, and listened 
to his words of wisdom in conversation or in speech, we could but 
exclaim, what a wonderful man is this! Feeble though he was, 
he has given his life to labor — not so much for himself as for 
others; and but recently, finding his means too limited to meet 
the demands upon his charity, even after meagerly supplying his 
own wants, his regret was not so much for himself as it was for 
those whom he could not help. But his work is done, his labor is 
ended, and he is to be buried out of our sight forever. No more 
again shall we ever see that bright and piercing eye — that pallid 
and wasted form. That free heart will throb no more in sympathy 
with other suffering hearts ; that hand opened so often to alms, is 
shut forever. But it is pleasant to remember that he lived out 



82 ^n i^Umoru. 



man's allotted time, and passed to his liual rest with a painless 
death. 

" ' He sat as sets the morning star, 

Which goes not down behind the darkened west, 
Nor hides obscure amid the tempests of the sky, 
But melts away into the very light of heaven.' " 

General Robert Toombs then spoke as follows : 

" Fellow-citizens: I come to mingle my tears with those of the 
people of Georgia for a great public calamity which has recently 
befallen them — not to make a eulogy over the body of Alexander 
H. Stephens. This is not necessary before any audience of his 
countrymen, anywhere, but especially not necessary or appropriate 
upon this occasion. His life has been an open book — that book 
the history of his country for the last half century. There his 
genius, his patriotism, his public services and patriotic utterances 
are recorded, as well as upon thousands of hearts in which his 
private virtues have been embalmed. He was modest, gentle, 
refined, learned and eloquent, and carried a large heart in his 
bosom — a heart feeling and suffering for all human wants and 
human woes. His whole life Mas spent in the practice of virtue, 
the pursuit of truth, seeking the good of mankind. Surrounded by 
early disadvantages, especially physical, which seemed to forbid — 
absolutely forbid by the hand of God — the work which was before 
him, yet he halted not, falt^•red not, feeling that 'there is a divinity 
that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will.' 

''After graduating from the University of Georgia with its 
highest honors, with the general verdict of his comrades that they 
were deserved, he entered upon the business of a teacher and 
trainer of youth, the vocation of his father — a very excellent and 
highly respected farmer of Wilkes county, who also supplemented 
his vocation as a farmer by that of a teacher, and reared a large 
number of children (of whom Governor Stephens was the eldest) 
with comfort and respectability. His choice was dictated both 
by pecuniary necessity and by his fondness for books. After he 
completed his collegiate education, those who best knew his virtues. 



^Icvaiukv liamittott ^^tfphrn.s. 33 



his blameless life and great abilities, were very desirous and argent 
that he should enter the sacred desk. His reply was, that God 
had not called him to that field of labor. He had decided the 
question before he left the walls of his Alma Mater. He agreed 
with that great martyr of liberty, Sidney, who declared in his work 
on government that * no temporal question was worthy of the 
human intellect except the well government of the human race.' 
Upon that field of labor he was always ready to enter when his 
services were demanded by his country. This was his ideal of the 
first duty of man to the human race and to God — the sheet anchor 
of human virtue, of human happiness. His first step in this 
direction was to study law and be admitted to the bar, which he 
entered in 1834, under William H. Crawford, then Judge of the 
Northern circuit, than whom no nobler name is inscribed on the 
roll of Georgia's worthies — a name which is the synonym of hon- 
esty, truth, patriotism and greatness, who, like our illustrious 
friend, died in the path of duty while attending one of the courts 
of his circuit. 

" Mr. Stephens soon became a leader of the bar of the Northern 
Circuit. His advent to the bar was an acknowledged success. It 
was no small distinction so soon to become a leader among such 
men. Among the names of the jiracticing lawyers at that time 
may be found that of Joseph Henry Lumpkin, our late Chief- 
Justice — certainly one of, if not the most, eloquent men and best 
lawyers that ever appeared at the Georgia bar, being also one of 
the best men that ever served the State of Georgia ; Francis H. 
Cone, a great thinker, lawyer, and afterwards judge of the Ocmul- 
gee Circuit; George R. Gilmer, Judge A. B. I^ongstreet, Judge 
Nathan Sayr, Judge Garnett Andrews, Senator Dawson, Judge 
James Thomas, and younger men whose subsequent distinction has 
shown them foemen worthy of his glittering steel. 

" He had been at the l)ar two years, when the general voice of 
the people of Taliaferro county called upon him with the cry, 
'Your time has come; we need you elsewhere,' and in 1836 they 
sent him to the Legislature of Georgia, and consecrated him to the 
public service for life. 
3 • 



34 ftt Pemoty. 



"Mr. Stephens entered public life at a marked period in the 
world's history — not marked by any advance in political knowl- 
edge or the science of government; not in literature; not in art; 
but in those discoveries and inventions which tend to ameliorate 
and improve the condition of the human race — to increase national 
wealth and add to the material comfort and progress of the human 
race. To this end a kind Providence seemed determined to disclose 
all of her secrets and to give to mankind the means of ameliorating, 
if not removing, many of the hindrances to the progress, advance 
and happiness of the human race. Daguerre has, in this genera- 
tion, invented the daguerreotype, dispensing in great part with the 
old masters in the art of painting, and their modern imitators, in 
transmitting the image of their loved ones to those unable to bear 
the expense of painted portraits. The old prophet of Judea, whose 
lips were touched with celestial fire at seeing the forked lightning 
leap through the rolling clouds, exclaimed : ' Who can hold the 
lightning in his hand?' Professor Morse, a poet and a painter, 
not a scientist, seized the electric spark and made it obey the will 
of man. Thus light became our portrait painter and lightning our 
news-carrier. Previous to these discoveries, the steam engine had 
been invented, and made our great rivers available to the wants of 
commerce; but it could supply only to a very limited extent the 
wants of transportation on land, especially in our new and almost 
boundless domain, capable of maintaining the surplus population 
of the whole civilized world. For these purposes the railway was 
necessary. The wisdom of this generation saw the public wants, 
and forthwith the inventive genius of the Anglo-Saxon race in- 
vented it. Nature seemed determined to unlock her secrets for all 
of her children in this century, but it needed the collective power 
and resources of civilized men to utilize them. The State of 
Georgia promptly accepted her noble gifts and adopted a system 
of railroad improvements marked by wonderful wisdom and fore- 
sight in the then state of knowledge on that subject. She deter- 
mined to charter three great roads, the Georgia Railroad Company, 
opening the port of Charleston, through the South Carolina roads, 
to her commerce; the Central Railroad, opening the port of Savan- 



^Icvandcv Hamilton ^tephftts. 35 



nah to her citizens, and a road to connect with the Alabama roads 
to the Gulf of Mexico. She did not intend to confine these bene- 
fits to herself. She looked beyond her own borders, and extended 
fraternal relations to her co-terminus sister States. But her sys- 
tem was incomplete. The Cherokee Indians, by the want of good 
faith in the Federal Government to her treaty of 1802, still occu- 
pied a large portion of her territory, cutting her off from Tennes- 
see and the West, in 1833, when the roads were chartered. But 
by the treaty of New Echota made in 1836, the Indian title to all 
the lands within her limits was extinguished. It was necessary to 
extend her system to the Tennessee river. There were but few 
white men and but little wealth in that country ; therefore, she 
determined to appropriate from the public purse money to build 
the grand trunk to open the great West to her commerce and her 
people. The measure came before the Legislature in 1836. Mr. 
Stephens entered the Legislature from Taliaferro County that ses- 
sion. He was without what men call special knowledge on that 
subject — a young man and a young legislator — but with a mind 
well stored with all the knowledge of the day upon that subject, 
and was ready for any and every duty demanded of him. The 
Legislature was much divided upon the question. The measure 
was necessary to complete our system. If it failed, our connection 
with the Tennessee river, the Mississippi river, and the great Sou- 
thern Sea, as the charter of Georgia called it, would be delayed, 
retarded, and left to the future. He stood for the bill. It passed 
after a great struggle, and the young member from Taliaferro be- 
came a marked man among Georgia statesmen. He served in the 
House and Senate continuously (except in 1841) until in 1843 he 
was elected to the 38th Congress of the U. S. At his first session 
a bill came before the House of Representatives to aid Professor 
Morse to test his experiment by building a telegraph line from 
Washington to Baltimore. He supported it, it was carried, and 
the work was finished in 1844. It was a success, and distance and 
time were annihilated as to the postal service on land. The next 
question on this subject which came before Congress was the 
practicability of making communication by the cable under the 



36 In Pnnovy. 



Atlantic to England. Some of the most scientific men in both 
England and America opposed it on the ground that it was impos- 
sible. He supported the bill for appropriating the money; it was 
carried ; the project was a success, and to-day messages can be sent 
around the world in as little time as it will take to write them. 
These great acts of his life mark his prescience if not his science. 

" Mr. Stephens was not always successful in his political strug- 
gles. He sometimes differed with his constituents — even with his 
best and most valued friends; but, holding strong and earnest 
convictions, he would yield them to no one. He met defeat, when 
it came upon him, with calmness and fortitude — without passion 
or reproaches upon his opponents. He was one of the few men I 
have ever known who could lose public support without the loss 
of public confidence. I will illustrate this trait of his character 
by some examples. 

"In the Presidential election of 1859, he ran on the Douglass 
and Johnson ticket for President and Vice-President of the United 
States. His ticket was largely defeated by the popular vote. The 
Legislature of Georgia soon after called a convention of the people 
to consider the great questions of secession and Union. He was 
returned from Taliaferro county as a Union delegate. The ques- 
tions were earnestly debated, feeling ran high, and the convention 
voted for secession and against Mr. Stephens. That body, the day 
the question was decided, called a congress at Montgomery to meet 
the rest of the seceding States, and to provide for the establishment 
and maintenance of a new government. The districts were to 
present candidates to be elected by the convention to that congress. 
The Eighth Congressional District, although with a large majority 
against him, presented his name as a proper person to represent it. 
He was elected by the convention, took iiis seat in the congress, 
supported with fidelity and honor the new government, was elected 
without opposition as A^ice-President of the Southern Confederacy, 
and stood by it until it fell by the fortunes of war, and until he 
was incarcerated by the public enemy in Fort Warren. 

"Another marked event in his life well illustrates this remark- 
able feature in his character. When he was defeated for the 



3^tc.vandiJt futmiltow ^t^phjuis.'. 37 



United States Senate by General Gordon, he was requested by 
some of his friends not to abandon the service of his country, but 
to stand for Congress in his old district. A convention to nomi- 
nate his successor had already been called. The convention was 
divided among several eminent citizens of the district. Upon the 
announcement that he would stand for its representation, all the 
other gentlemen retired, and he was elected as representative of his 
old district in Congress without opposition, and continued to do so 
until the people called him to the Executive chair, which he filled 
until death called him to rest. Under these reverses he pursued 
the even tenor of his way, without malice or reproaches to any, 
with good will to all, and, above all, with unfaltering devotion to 
his country and her cause, whether in triumph or defeat, and left 
behind him ' one of the few immortal names that were not born 
to die.' 

"Such was his public life. His private life was a model of 
filmplicity, purity, love and affection to his family and friends and 
to the human race, especially for the poor. Even the most wicked 
of the human race could not put themselves beyond his pity and 
his charity. His literary works, especially his history of ' The 
War Between the States,' will be a nionument to his genius as 
long as the English language is spoken. 

" His end was in grand and beautiful harmony with his life. 
Death had no sting, the grave no victory, when his great and 
noble spirit gently and noiselessly departed from the frail tenement 
in which it had dwelt so long iii pain and suffering. No king of 
terrors guarded the portals of its exit to the regions of immortal 
rest. 

" ' Earth's highest honors end in here he lies, 
And dust to dust concludes her noblest song.' " 

Senator Joseph E. Brown was then introduced by Senator Col- 
quitt. He said : 

" Mr. Chairman : For more than forty years, Alexander H. 
Stephens has been a prominent figure in connection with the polit- 
ical and business interests and social system of Georgia. During 



38 iU\ i^UmovM. 



this long period of his distinguished services, in which his great 
powers and his mental ability have been so signally displayed, his 
name has been a household word, not only in Georgia, but in 
every State in the Union. Indeed, it has not been confined to the 
Union. He was well known in foreign lands as one of the great 
leading minds of America. No name has been longer or better 
known in public life, or more universally honored, than the name 
of the great Commoner whose sad demise we meet to mourn. 

" On account of the shortness of the time that can properly be 
occupied by the large number of gentlemen who have been invited 
to make remarks on this sad occasion, on the virtues of the de- 
ceased, it would be unbecoming in me to make an elaborate address, 
or to attempt to give a biographical sketch of our distinguished 
friend, or to draw even a general outline of his long and most 
useful career. Whether as attorney at law (a position of great 
responsibility and usefulness when properly practiced); or as a 
member of the Legislature of his native State; or as member of 
Congress, where his services have given him so much renown for 
so long a time ; or as Vice-President of the Confederate States ; or 
as Governor of our own beloved State, he has been the same 
eloquent and able champion of constitutional liberty, local self- 
government, and human rights. 

" Even in his retirement — which was self-imposed for a time — 
his literary and historical labors on the same line fo" +he protection 
of human liberty, have enrolled his name indeliby on a bright 
[)age in the temple of fame. His feeble, delicate frame, worn down 
with disease, after a long struggle succaimbed to death ; but his 
gigantic intellect was brilliant and powerful during his whole 
career. The name of Alexander H. Stephens can never die as 
long us liberty dwells on earth, and intellect and virtue are hon- 
ored by the good and the great. He was emphatically a good man 
as well as a great man. His sympathy was as extensive as the 
miseries of his race. He was always ready to minister consolation 
in every case of distress, and relief to the extent of his ability in 
every case of need. His life was devoted to the pleasure and 
welfare of others. He was the ardent friend of education, and did 



more thau any other man who luxs lived in Georgia for the educa- 
tion of young men in need of assisiance. But such was his mod- 
esty, that even his most intimate friends seldom heard him speak 
of what he was doing or suffering for others. 

" He has left behind him a spotless character. He has blessed 
the generation in which he lived with a noble example. He has 
been, in the highest sense of the term, a public benefactor. His 
great intellectuality, his distinguished patriotism, his acknowl- 
edged statesmanship, his profound philosophy, his accurate knowl- 
edge of human nature, his keen penetration into the future, his 
wisdom in council, his fidelity to principle and to friendship, his 
philanthropy, his sympathy with the poor, his relief of the needy, 
and his universal Christian charity, are qualities more to be de- 
sired, decorations of human character of greater value, than all the 
wealth of Croesus or the glitter of the royal diadem, emblem of 
absolutism, which sparkles upon the brow of the Czar of all the 
Euasias. 

" But our friend, true and cherished — the friend of his race — so 
patient in his suffering and so true to every trust — has been called 
from his labors, that his works may follow him and that he may 
enter upon the enjoyments of his everlasting reward. Individually, 
I feel that my loss is irreparable. For more than a quarter of a 
century, he had not only borne to me the relation of a friend, but 
he was my bosom friend. I loved him ; I honored him ; I con- 
ferred freely with him. He was wise, and good, and great. But 
my loved and honored friend sleeps the long sleep of death, and I 
am left to mourn his loss. If the proprieties of the occasion per- 
mitted, I could not trust myself to enlarge. I feel more like 
weeping than speaking. Friend, counsellor, companion — he is 
gone, and I can see him no more in this world ! 

' He was a man — take him for all in all, 
I shall not look upon his like again.' 

Peace to his ashes ! And while his immortal spirit dwells with 
God who gave it, may perpetual blessings cluster around his hon- 
ored name ! " 



40 in Pfmovy. 



General Ileiiiy R. Jackson then spoke as follows: 

" How profoundly must all of us feel the impotence of words 
to voice the sad spirit of the passing hour ! A sigh, a sob, a flood 
of tears — these are the eloquence fit for an occasion like this ; and 
these — are not all of us prepared to give? There has not been a 
moment of my waking life since I heard that he was dead, when I 
could not have burst into tears like a woman, or failed to feel that 
I need not blush to weep. With astonishment I have asked myself. 
What is the meaning of this ? What relationship bound you to 
the dead to account for this? That, for many years past, Mr. 
Stephens has been to me a special admiration is known to all who 
know me well. But we do not weep for those we simply admire. 
When they perish, the world may grow darker indeed, but we do 
not feel so lonesome in it. How, then, am I to account for this ? 

" Oh ! that ' speech in Savannah,^ just referred to by General 
Toombs ! God only knows how grateful I was to Dr. Miller for 
the few words which indicated that his journey did not cause his 
death. Probably I was most instrumental in getting him thither, 
and meet it is that I should come to lay my garland, humble 
though it be, upon his bier. 

"Mr. Chairman, permit me to say, the presence of that wonder- 
ful and phenomenal man in Savannah came like a revelation to 
her people, and left a seal deep upon her which will rest there 
forever. No reaper ever gathered sheaves of grain as he gathered 
sheaves of hearts. But still the question recurs, ' How came this 
to be so ? What was there in the man that thus caused human 
hearts to swarm to him, as the bees of Hymettus swarmed to the 
honeyed lips of the fabled singer?' Let us, for one moment, 
reflect ! I ask the most enlightened thinker of us all — what is 
must God-like in its power — what in rhetoric, what in poetry, 
what in thought — nay, what in history, what in the world of 
action — what is it that has the most God-like power to concentrate 
human contemplation ? — to quicken and fasten human aftection ? 
Ascend, if you please, through the telescope, far up into the infinite; 
descend, through the microscope, far down into the infinitesimal; 



§^k.\'at«lev fuimiltott <f ttpU^usi. 41 



behold ! contrast is the compass that spans the universe of God — 
contrast is the compass that measures the civilization of man. Lo! 
a God from heaven nailed to the wooden cross of earth ! Contrast 
is the figure which Omnipotence itself has used to rouse and win 
the love of mankind. And in whom among the living — nay, in 
whom among the dead — has contrast ever so deeply enthroned her- 
self as in the man whom Georgia mourns to-day ? Let those who 
stand at a distance suspect or prate, if they please, of exaggeration. 
We, who knew him, know that here exaggeration is simply impos- 
sible. What figure strong enough to illustrate the truth? — a 
condor emerging from the egg of a dove ; the pyramid of Cheops 
balanced upon a schoolboy's marble ; the geni escaping from the 
Arabic casket to eclipse, with its stupendous development, the sun 
in heaven ? Nay ! let the imagination loose — give to her the wild- 
est of eagle's wings — she cannot exaggerate. Behold the poor, 
frail, emaciated physical frame ! Helpless — almost as helpless as 
an infant in its swaddling clothes — and then see the mental and 
moral development rising from it, 

" ' Like some tall cliff that rears its awful form, 

Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm ; 
Though rolling clouds around its breast are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 

" Evoke from history, if you please, the grandest of her heroes — 
hvv Alexanders, her Csesars, \wv Bonapartes — rest assured that in 
the comparison he will triumph. Circumstance, the king-maker, 
fought for them ; circumstance, the man-destroyer, warred against 
him. Who among us that observes, who among us that refl(!cts, is 
not aware that, with the representative man, chronic disease, con- 
tinuous pain, the perpetual consciousness thai death may be near, 
concentrate thought and emotion on self, capture the noblest ex- 
emplars of our common humanity, ami rivet them down to the 
very dust of self? But how was it with him ? The more he suf- 
fered himself, the more he strove to relieve the suffering of others. 
Every pang that struck at his vitals but sowed the seed of a 
grander charity. Heroic conqueror of self and circumstance ! to 
whom can we fitly apply the term God-like, if not to him ? 



" And .so he came to Savannah witli the serene liglit of heaven 
already in his eye. Our people swarmed about him as he moved 
along our streets. The high, the humble, the learned, the igno- 
rant — all ages, all colors — followed him, lord as he was of the 
universal heart. From home to home he went, repelling no invi- 
tation which by possibility he could accept. Weak and suffering, 
he gave himself to the pleasure of others. Last of all he came to 
us. Memorable day ! Who of us can ever forget it ? Richard 
was all himself aguin. There was the feeble ring of the old 
clarion-like voice which years before had charmed me as never had 
charmer charmed so wisely. There was the same weird light of 
the wonderful eye as he recalled the memories of the past. Con- 
versation was directed to eloquence, and how eloquently did he 
recount his own experience of eloquent men. From Webster, of 
the North, he came to the giants of Georgia history ; Titan-like 
Toombs, hurling his Hamilcar bolt against the foes of his country ; 
impassioned Lumpkin, with Lornado-like eloquence — rain^ sleet, 
hail, whirlwind, all mingled together — sweeping everything before 
it; the classic Berrien ; the Apollo-like Forsytli ; and, looming up 
in the remoter distance, the Alpine intellect of Crawfoid. Oh, 
what a fea-t of reason ! what a flow of soul ! When there was a 
pausi', I said to him : ' Governor, you have given us the great men 
who figure in Georgia history : tell us something now about y.»ur 
tramp.'" The sweet smile that played athwart his lips, what words 



*NoTE. — -Ideal creations liave rarely been so touching as the incident which suggested this 
inquiry. Wlun Mr. Stephens had entered the Pulman Palace Car which was to convey him to 
Atlanta several days liefore his inauguration, with the committee of distinguished gentlemen 
wlio had come to escort him, an individual whose peculiar appearance failed to harmonize with 
the party or tiu; occasion, soon attracted general attention. Mr. Stephens' servant, being inter- 
rogated upon the subject, enlightened the curious by saying: "That is Mars Alec's tranip,'' and 
exi)lained tiic singularity of the thing by the further observation: " Mars Alec is Icinder to dogs 
tlian most people is to folks." 

Wlien the (rovernor elect was himself questioned in regard to the questionable stranger, he 
replied witli the utmost simplicity: '■ Ue is a poor fellow who has nothing, and wants to get 
work. I had no employnu'ut for him here, and so I told him to come along witli me to Atlanta, 
and I would see what I could do for him there." 

The Bishop Uienvenu, of " Les Miserables," is the loveliest, as well as the grandest, myth 
of Victor Hugo's transcendent imagination. Are wo sure that a reality, quite as grand, quite as 
lovely, has not sprung from the bosom of our own State ? giving to many of us the ennobling 
riglit of being able to say : '■'■ Jene auis pas la rose, rnais fai vecu pres (Telle .'" 



^UxautUv fuimiltou ^tfphcna. 48 



can ever express ? And the eloquence of a practical life — how it 
beggars the tongue of man ! If ever human words did express it, 
they came from his own humble servant: ' Mars Alec is kinder to 
dogs than most people is to folks.' What Demosthenian or Cic- 
eronian lips have ever formulated such an eulogium ? 

" ' Governor/ one of us said, ' we hear that you have a room at 
Liberty Hall for tramps.' ' Yes,' he replied, * I feel it my duty to 
try to make everybixly as happy as 1 can.' We saw the tips of 
the angel wings. We realized that an angel had blessed our house, 
and we felt — oh, how profoundly! — that everywhere the lines 
over which those wheels had rolled were holy — that no Georgian 
could CHiSS them with a base thought in his head, or a mean, ma- 
lignant feeling in his heart, without becoming a traitor to the mother 
earth which gave that frail, attenuated form to the breathing world, 
and is now about to hug it back to herself again." 

Colonel Charles C. Jones, Jr., LL.D', then delivered the follow- 
ing address : 

" Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: Again has the 
Angel of Death descended and borne aloft the Chief Executive of 
this Commonwealth, his tenure of office unfulfilled, the duties of 
his high station still claiming his attention. The occurrence is 
most marked, the visitation calamitous, the bereavement all per- 
vading. 

His Excellency Governor Alexander Hamilton Stephens is dead. 
The astute lawyer, the eloquent advocate, the philosophical states- 
man, the reliable historian, the sage counsellor, the generous bene- 



The remark of the servant recalls an Oriental Tradition of the Rabbis : "Once upon a time, 
when Divine Pity in human guise wallied the eartli, in the bazaar of an Eastern city a group 
were gathered about the carcass of a dog which had been hanged for stealing ; the rope about 
his necli indicating the cause of death and mode of punishment. The gaunt, foul brute lay fes- 
tering in the sun; the shrivelled jaws exposuig the glistening fangs. "Vile beast," said one: 
" he well deserved his fate." "Away with the unclean thing," cried another. And some hurled 
stones, and some abusive epithets upon the mangey thief. Suddenly a dead silence fell upon the 
rabble, for amongst them stood a man in humble garb but of noble and majestic presence, who, 
fixing his benign glance upon the strangled brute, said: "Pearls cannot equal the whitenetis of his 
teeth." Then they, ashamed, shrank away one by one, and the Elders whispered among them- 
selves: ''Surely this must be Jesus of Nazareth who can find something good even in a dead dog^ 



44 itt pcmovy. 



factor, the loyal citizen, and the Christian gentleman, has fallen on 
sleep. A nation mourns the demise! of this great and virtuous 
man who, during a long life, served the Republic well, and in de- 
parting bequeathed no legacy save such as is redolent of honor, 
probity, purity, and genuine moral excellence. 

" The death of those distinguish'd by their station, 
But by their virtue more, awakes the mind 
To solemn dread, and strikes a saddening awe." 

And what, my fellow-citizens, can I add to the manifest lesson 
of the hour, or say in the immediate presence of the dead ? In 
the attempt even feebly to recount the fame and the virtues of this 
distinguished Georgian, 1 find myself, in the language of the elo- 
quent Bossuet when pronouncing his splendid eulogy upon the 
Prince of Conde, overwhelmed by the greatness of the theme and 
the Heedlessness of the task. Is there a hamlet within the wide 
borders of this land in which his name is not a household word ? 
Beats there a heart in this vast audience that does not bear willing 
testimony to his amiable qualities, sterling worth, and conspicuous 
ability ? Everywhere are his noble characteristics, his labors, and 
his achievements rehearsed. In extolling them we can give no 
information even to strangers; and, although I may remind you 
of them, anything I could now say would be anticipated by your 
thoughts, and I should suiFer the reproach of falling far below 
them. While it is true that 

. . . ' The tongues of dying men 
Enforce attention like deep harmony,' 

more potent by far are the lessons inculcated by consistent lives 
and the legacies bequeathed by deathless examples. Some men 
there are — would to God their name was legion ! — whose walk and 
conversation are sermons, and whose characters are in themselves 
divine songs. (Jur Governor in yielding up his spirit made no 
sign, utt< red no last injunction, expressed no final wish ; but he 
lived ever mindful of death, and so ordered his affairs that when 
summoned to enter upon the iter tenebricosum, he went forth unfal- 
teringly, with his lamp trimmed and burning. 



§tlaatt(Ur liamiltan ^tepheu.si. 45 



Having attained unto the full measure of his days, crowned 
with the high<«t honors Georgia could bestow, secure in the confi- 
dence, esteem, and affection of his people, and in the active discharge 
of the most illustrious duties enjoined by the Commonwealth, he 
has gone down in the forefront of the grand battle of life. 

It is a brave thing thus to die in harness, and, -vilhout pause in 
the energetic, conscientious performance of the highest obligations, 
to pass, in the twinkling of an eye, from the field of dignified 
labor to the regions of beatific rest. 

'Thank God, I have done my duty!' were the last words of 
the gallant Nelson, as amid the thunders and carnage of the battle 
of Trafalgar, and in the moment of assured victory, he rendered 
up his heroic life to his Country and Creator. He died as a leader 
of armies and navies loves best to die — with his stars upon him 
and with the shouts of triumph ringing in his ear. Not less noble, 
not less impressive, is the death of the civilian who, in the midst 
of weighty affairs, clothed in the mantle of high office, and instant 
in the fulfilment of important engagements, encounters the last 
enemy. There is something manly, something excellent, some- 
thing worthy of all admiration in the conduct of our Executive 
during his supreme moments. Died in the service of the Common- 
wealth — be this his proud epitaph. Here, in the presence of so 
much that is ennobling in the past, bury we our present griefs. 

At the outset, with slender means, and born with circumscribed 
hopes, he has shown to the present and the coming generations 
what may be compassed by industry, application, consecuity of 
purpose, unswerving integrity, and true manhood. Without the 
adjuvatives of birth and fortune, he achieved success most enviable, 
carved for himself a name respected and revered throughout the 
broad limits of this State and Confederation, and acquired a repu- 
tation not unknown in foreign lands. Around the bier of the 
orphan boy of Taliaferro county — but yesterday an old man famous 
and venerated — a nation weeps ; and ' Liberty Hall,' hallowed by 
his struggles and his triumphs, his charities and his labors, has 
long been classed among the noted homes of American statesmen 
and scholars. 



46 !» Pfmovy. 



Beholden, in the morning of his existence, to the assistance of 
others for the acquisition and completion of his academic and 
collegiate education, he never ceased to remember the obligation, 
or neglected to exhibit that virtue which has been aptly styled 

' The first-born of Religion.' 

Hundreds there are who have tasted of his benefactions, who owe 
their advancement to his helping hand, and who now rise up and 
call him blessed. 

Phenominally weak in body, his active intellect and indomi- 
table will overcame physical infirmities which might well have 
excused self-indulgence and non-action. He was a marvelous 
illustration of the power of mind over matter — of the domination 
of the immortal over that which is of the earth, earthy. 

Borne upward by a strong and legitimate ambition, inspired 
by hopes elevated and conspicuous, and encouraged by aspirations 
the most catholic and exalted, he realized his highest expectations, 
and, both at home and in the national halls, has long been regarded 
as a potent, central figure. With the political history of this State 
and Country have his name and fame for nearly half a century been 
closely identified. During the Confederate struggle for independ- 
ence, he was complimented with an oi!ice second only to one within 
the srift of the Southern States. 

Keenly sensitive to public opinion, and easily aflPected by honest 
praise or unmerited censure, he would neither purchase the one nor 
conciliate the other by concessions usually regarded as venial. 

Firm was he in his convictions, brave of purpose, and fearless 
in action. Never was the purity of his motives questioned. That 
he could, in the discharge of any duty, be influenced by rewards 
was never so much :is hinted. Through all the fluctuations of 
party schemes, and amid the pollutions and enticements which en- 
vironed the pathway of tlie legislator at Washington, he passed 
uncontaminated. From the political furnace, in which he so long 
walked, he emcTged without the smell of fire upon his garments. 

History has written this epitaph for the tomb of Epaminon- 
idas : ' He coveted and took from the Republic nothing save glory.' 



g^UxantUv ftainiUaw ,^teph(u,s. " 29 



In the days of her greatest renown, it was the boast of Greece that 
her sons were insensible to all rewards except such as were reaped 
in the paths of virtue. In this epoch of suspicion, of corruption, 
and of questionable conduct, proudly does Georgia point to the 
unsullied record of that son whom she this day opens her generous 
bosom to receive in a loving, peaceful, and final embrace. 

Well has it been said that the substantial glory of a nation 
concentres about her virtuous citizens and upright statesmen. No 
people can be fated to ignominy or misfortune who learn with do- 
cility the lessons inculcated by their examples, and cherish the 
memories bequeathed by their unselfish devotion. 

[n his private character, no one could be more guileless, none 
more amiable, none more faithful to friend, none more considerate 
of the rights, the requests, and the necessities of others. 

In his official station he was accessible to all, and instant in 
responding to the exigency of the occasion. 

Broad and liberal was he in his views. Throughout the entire 
land was he honored for the integrity of his aims, the honesty of 
his intentions, and the elevation of his statesmanship. 

To Georgia — her people, her traditions, and her institutions — 
did heeling with an affection which knew no bounds. Every- 
thing which could minister to her welfare, her prosperity, her dig- 
nity, and her relief, found cordial encouragement at his hand and 
heart. Within a mouth did he tax to the utmost his failing 
strength in proclaiming', at the Sesqui-Centennial celebration of 
the landing of Oglethorpe, the story of the foundation, the devel- 
opment, and the present glories of his native State. 

A desire to erect and perpetuate home rule in all purity and 
justice. State pride and love of Country did he cherish in an emi- 
nent degree. Cardinal Richelieu's devotion to France did not 
transcend our Great Commoner's consecration t:) Georgia. He had 
uever given pledges to fortune, and the State and Nation were his 
constant loves. 

He will survive, not as a tradition, but as an earnest actor who 
has left an imprint upon his age, and has interpreted in enduring 
form the aspirations and the achievements of his people. Cold in 



48 in Pemotvj. 



death are those delicate fingers now, but the lines which they have 
traced will endure for the edification of the coming ages and for 
the vindication of truth. 

Long will he be held in grateful and affectionate remembrance 
for his vigorous intellect — for his honest, enlightened, philosoph- 
ical statesmanship — for an independence of thought and action 
which nothing could shake — for a bravery of heart which neither 
threat nor opposition could intimidate — for private and official 
integrity incapable of corruption — for a philanthropy which far 
transcended his means — for a love of Country and State which 
amounted to a devotion ever present and loyal — for a purity of 
character most remarkable — for an energy and intellectual activity 
tasking to the utmost his greatest powers — and for religious and 
moral rectitude as spotless as mortals may claim. 

In the catalogue of worthies, living and dead, who are num- 
bered among the sons of this grand Commonwealth, none may be 
named more illustrious than he who but yesterday rested from his 
important labors and entered into peace. 

' His twelve long hours 
Bright to the edge of darkness ; then the calm 
Repose of twilight and a crown of stars.' 

And now in the presence of him,* the Founder of the colony 
of Georgia, who located her primal settlements, propitiated the 
savages, by force of arms hurled back the Spanish invader, and in 
wisdom paved the way for the development of a few into a mighty 
nation — in the presence of him,t who, in his zeal for the fair fiime 
of Georgia, called down fire from heaven to purge the public 
records from every trace of fraud — in the presence of him,| who, 
in brave maintenance of State Rights, proclaimed to the President 
of this Union, ' The argument is exhausted, we will stand by our 
arms' — in the presence of all these worthies, whose portraits dig- 
nify the walls of this Representative Chamber — in your presence, 
my fellow-citizens, upon whom the government and the honor of 

* Gen. Oglethorpe. f Gov. James Jackson. J Gov. Geo. M. Troup. 



^le.vanttn' fumilton J>tephcni6i. 49 



the Commonwealth now devolve, and by your permission, I make 
bold to affirm that when the images of all the living and the dead 
who are illustrating, and who have illustrated Georgia by noble 
deeds and virtuous lives, are lifted up in that Pantheon where 
Truth has fixed her eternal home, no statue will there appear purer, 
brighter, or more illustrious than that of Alexander Hamilton 
Stephens." 

Dr. H. V. M. Miller was then introduced, and spoke as follows : 

" When the greatest character in all antiquity was brought to 
his last and final illness, in the chamber in which he lay some of 
his friends were commenting upon his career, the history of his 
life, and endeavoring to fix upon that act or series of acts upon 
which his future fame would rest. Was it this great speech? Was 
it that successful piece of diplomacy ? Was it the building of the 
Odeon or construction of the Pathenon ? Was it any of the great 
achievements which made his country the first in political influence 
in that age, and the first in intellectual grandeur of that or any 
other time? He turned to them and said : 'You have omitted to 
mention the foundation stone of my fame. It is, that during a 
long career I have done no act which caused a citizen of Athens to 
put on mourning.' At first view that would seem but a simple 
claim to fame — to lasting fame. Men have in all ages admired 
and been seduced by military glory — the reputation of victories. 
But, after all, tombs are the trophies of battle-fields ; sacked cities, 
devastated countries, desolated homes, human misery and carnage, 
the result; famine and pestilence which follow in its train — these 
mark the career of the conqueror. 

" But there is another side to human history. It has been 
written that ' Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war,' 
and her trophies are prosperous cities, increasing population, fertile 
fields, free and untrammeled commerce, universal peace and hap- 
piness throughout nations, amongst peoples. In this field Mr. 
Stephens gained his laurels, and we all know that what Pericles 
said of himself is equally true of him for whom to-day the Com- 
4 



50 itt Pmotvj. 



raonwealth mourns. No Georgian, no American, by any act of 
his has had cause to put on mourning ; no human heart did he 
ever cause to be wrung with anguish ; no gloom was ever cast over 
a human soul by a word or a deed of his ; no human eye ever 
dropped a tear because of any failure on his part, or from any 
cause until to-day, when tears well up unbidden from* sympathetic 
hearts of the whole people in view of their recent bereavement. 

" It would be unnecessary to review Mr. Stephens' history. It 
is familiar to all who are here ; it is familiar to all the State, to 
all the Union, to the entire civilization of the world. Among the 
traits of character, however, which earned him his high distinction, 
I beg to call your attention to the first, perhaps his most eminent 
characteristic — his majestic wisdom. Wisdom! No man who 
ever met him but was impressed with it. I do not mean the 
wisdom which comes from research, however laborious, which he 
was accustomed to make; I do not mean the wisdom which is 
exhibited in flippancy of speech or in accidental composition. I 
mean that higher, deeper wisdom, which constitutes the character 
of a statesman. The best definition of it in all the world I think 
we find in holy writ, brief but full. In speaking of certain young 
men who had followed the standard of David in early life, who 
became afterwards the supports and pillars of his throne, it is said 
that they ' had understanding of the times to know what Israel 
ought to do.' That is the statesmanship which Mr. Stephens 
possessed in a degree above all other men that I have ever met or 
of whom I have ever read. He had, in regard to public ofl&ces 
and private affairs, a prescience which was wonderful. His glance 
into the future, as all know, was Olympian in its scope and clear- 
ness. That wisdom was the result, of course, of labor and effort, 
a long poring over of the subjects which his mind contemplated, 
but which resided still more, it appears to me, in the genius with 
which God had endowed him. He had given him the spirit of 
wisdom, and this spirit so fitted him, so influenced his own mind, 
that he became, from the very moment of his entrance into public 
life, a leader among mankind. I do not think there was ever an 
assembly of men of which he composed one, but what he was the 



gtUxMiler pjttttilt0tt <^tepltftt^'. 51 



most distinguished leader. All deferred to his judgment, to his 
greater knowledge of his subject, and especially to that intuitive 
perception of the right thing and the fit thing that should be done; 
and as other men had great confidence in this wisdom, it gave to 
him another remarkable peculiarity of character — self-reliance and 
the courage of his opinions. His own great intellect was so well 
satisfied of the truth of his conclusions, that he rested upon them 
with an assured confidence which seemed to many obstinacy or 
vanity. It was neither. It was the conclusion of the greatest 
intellect of modern times brought to bear upon whatever subject it 
contemplated. Feeling with security, he seemed obstinate when 
he was but firm. Besides this, his conclusions were supported by 
a courage, physical and moral, as great as ever influenced human 
life or human action. I believe, after life-long acquaintance with 
him, that Alexander H. Stephens was the bravest man I ever 
looked in the face. No circumstances could influence his opinion 
or his judgment extraneous from the rule of reason which he had 
adopted. He was not only the bravest man by the agreement of 
all men, but he was a man of the highest integrity, a man abso- 
lutely incorruptible, with the highest moral worth of any man I 
ever saw. 

" Now, to these elements of his character, and to the recognition 
of them, is due the fact that he uniformly led the people of Geor- 
gia, and usually the people of the whole United States. They had 
confidence in his wisdom ; they followed intuitively the inspira- 
tions of his courage ; they knew the purity of his motives, and 
they followed him in preference to the more specious arguments of 
others who might have been opposed to him. So often have those 
conclusions been demonstrated to be correct, even after they had 
been temporarily disregarded, that the people of this State had 
come to regard his utterances as the voice of an oracle — not delphic 
or doubtful, but plain spoken as a revelation from the throne of 
God. These, it seems to me, were the characteristics of his mind ; 
but they were supported and sustained by an eloquence which was 
marvelous — marvelous in its effect. Other men may have spoken 
as learnedly ; other men may have reasoned as logically ; other 



52 Iftt Pcmovy. 



men may have turned paragraphs as handsomely ; but never in 
Georgia was uttered an ek)quence which had the same power upon 
the hearts and conduct of mankind. As was said of Pericles by 
Plato, 'Persuasion dwelt upon his lips ;' and who that ever heard 
him will not admit the truth of this declaration ? His eloquence 
touched the sentiments, the judgment, and influenced the action of 
the people. That was its peculiarity. It was not the oratory that 
elicited admiration alone ; it controlled human action. Like the 
great oration of Demosthenes, which scholars will recall, at the 
close of it his countrymen did not break out in the usual applause, 
but rose as one man and said: 'Let us march against Phillip!' 
Of all the orators who ever addressed a Georgia audience, none 
was so potent as Mr. Stephens. He was the most effective orator 
I ever listened to. As an element of it, I may allude to a pecu- 
liarity of his voice. I need not describe it. No human being can 
imitate it, but you all remember it. That voice is as familiar to 
the people of Georgia as the note of the melodious feathered song- 
ster of the Southern forests, and fell not alone on the organ of 
hearing, but thrilled through every fibre of soul and body like an 
electric current. 

" Another trait of his character which I wish to mention has 
already been alluded to, and that is his benevolence and universal 
charity. The monuments of his beneficence, like the monuments 
of his statesmanship, are all over the land. They might be 
brought up in individual instances, for there is hardly a commu- 
nity in the State, hardly a neighborhood, where there does not 
dwell a recipient of his bounty ; where there are not living monu- 
ments of that benevolence which was as extensive as his means, 
and when these failed his brain itself was commuted into ducats 
to supply the deficiency. 

" But then, outside of this mere charity — who that ever knew 
him has not been impressed with the kindliness and gentleness of 
his manner. How indescribable is that genial influence which he 
shed upon all visitors who approached him ! How well adapted 
to the character, and circumstances, and feelings of each ! With 
men, how kindly and sympathetic, with the bad as well as with 



^Icviuulcv lUmiltau ,f t«i)U«n;,si. 53 



the good! Though stci'ii in his sintiments against evil, he never 
uttered a word of condemnation against the individual wrong-doer. 
His sympathies covered the just and unjust. His kindliness was 
the same to all, of every condition, race and color ; and who that 
ever observed his conduct, and was intimate in his social relations, 
but has been touched with the peculiar gentleness, the cheerfulness 
of his demeanor towards ladies who approached him ? He received 
them so kindly, gently, so politely. I need not enlarge upon it. 
There are thousands and thousands of them all over the State who 
never will forget the gentle, thrilling touch of that little hand 
upon theirs, and the kind tone with which they were received, 
entertained, or dismissed. And then another feature of his con- 
duct was most striking to those who observed it — his demeanor to 
children, the peculiarity of it, the kindliness of it — so much like 
the conduct of Him who long, long ago took little children in his 
arms and blessed them. Oh ! the thousands of little boys and 
girls scattered all over the State to-day who have been the recipi- 
ents of his kindness and courtesy ; and in the years to come old 
men and old women will remember the gentle touch and the inter- 
view they had with the old dying Governor. 

" As a part of this, I must very briefly refer to the fact that he 
has been supposed to let his sympathy with suffering go too far. 
My dear friends, can you think so? Can you blame the gentle 
spirit who loved, even too well, to say to the erring, 'go and sin 
no more ' ? Remember, that thq last public act of the blessed 
Savior was the pardon of a criminal. 

" Such is the character we mourn to-day. We mourn not the 
loss — it was inevitable ; or the bereavement — we had long expected 
it. We mourn the single pang of parting from our guide, our 
counsellor, our friend, our universal brother; and Georgia, amid 
her sadness, draped in the habiliments of mourning, may still 
proudly say, as the British nobleman did on the death of his 
bright, promising son. Lord Ossory, clasping his memory to her 
bosom, that she would not exchange the precious memory of her 
dead son for any living offspring of any State in this or any other 
country." 



54 in P^mDvy. 



Senator Col(][uitt then arose and said : 

" It now remains for us, after the eulogies on this occasion are 
ended, as Georgians, to speak for ourselves. Those who are in 
favor of the resolutions that have been read will please rise and 
stand in silence. (After a pause.) The resolutions are adopted 
unanimously. We will now receive the benediction." 

Rev. C A. Evans : " May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be 
with you all evermore. Amen." 

The audience was then dismissed. 



At three o'clock, the hour for the funeral services, the casket 
was closed, and was borne into the hall of the house by the Gov- 
ernor's staff. The funeral party entered the hall led by Senator 
Colquitt and Mr. Julius L. Brown. Following them came Dr. 
Jones and Dr. Talmage ; then General Evans, Dr. Gwin and other 
gentlemen. In front of the casket walked Mr. Patterson, the 
undertaker, bearing in his arms the floral pillow, the offering of 
the Ste])hens Hose Company, of Augusta. The casket was placed 
directly in front of the stand, and the floor of the hall began to 
All with those who had been granted seats there. The galleries 
iiad long since been filled up. 

The choir sang as a voluntary, " I waited for the Lord," follow- 
ing which was the opening prayer by the Rev. Clement A. Evans. 
At the conclusion of General Evans' prayer, the choir sang "How 
Blest." The scene was deeply impressive, as the hall, unused to 
such sweet and solemn sounds, resounded with the music to the 
beautiful words : 



gtUxantlev DiamiWon ^tepJtfttiSi. 55 



" How blessed the righteous when he dies, 
When sinks a weary soul to rest; 
How mildly beam the closing eyes, 
How gentle heaves the expiring breast ! 

" So fades a summer cloud away ; 

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er; 
So gently shuts the eye of day ; 
So dies a wave along the shore. 

" Life's duty done, as sinks the clay, 
Light from its load the spirit flies ; 
While heaven and earth combine to say, 

' How blessed the righteous when he dies.' " 

Dr. Adams, of Augusta, read a chapter from the Bible, and 
following him was the funeral discourse by Rev. John Jones, 
Chaplain of the Senate. Dr. Jones spoke as follows : 

2 Sam. iii. 38. — " Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this 
day in Israel ?" Job v. 26. — "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a 
shock of corn cometh in, in his season." 

*' This is an occasion of solemn and tender interest. Mingled 
emotions are struggling in our hearts. A commonwealth, a nation 
mourns. Georgia, by her unnumbered represientatives, is here 
to-day to testify her love and sorrow for the most filial, the most 
consecrated, and, in many respects, the most distinguished of her 
sons. To her he gave his youth, his manhood, and Jiis mature 
age. And as we shed our tears and flowers on that precious dust, 
and hearts become impetuous with emotion and anguish half sup- 
pressed, let us pause and be patient, and say, God hath done it. 
" He appointeth our bounds, beyond which we cannot pass. The 
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name 
of the Lord !" Let us first acknowledge the Judge of all the 
earth, and thus be prepared to bestow an affectionate memorial on 
the illustrious dead. " Know ye not that there is a prince and a 
great man fallen this day in Israel ?" How appropriate are these 
words to our departed friend ! The word prince is derived from two 
words meaning chief-head, indicating personal superiority ; its ap- 



56 i« Pjmovtj. 



plication to hereditary and official position was secondary. The 
old Saxon word great, in its original sense, indicates magnitnde, 
either material or intellectual, and is used to signify a magnitude 
that is uncommon and remarkable. Such was Governor Stephens. 
Among his fellows from youth he was first-head, princeps; among 
the great men of the nation he was great, uncommon, remarkable. 
And although we have assembled not to praise, but bury our 
beloved chief magistrate, it is due to him, to ourselves and to pos- 
terity,, to crystalize the striking facts and points of his life and 
character. 

As we draw near and observe him in the solemn state of death, 
he grows with our contemplation. His intellectual and moral 
proportions are more fully recognized, and we are reminded of 
some monarch of the forest, beneath whose shadows we reposed in 
youth, as its lofty branches held communion with the clouds, to 
us a life-long glory. Yet is our admiration turned to wonder, 
when the sturdy trunk, after battling with a thousand storms, 
uprooted by the hurricane, lies prostrate on the earth ; then we 
realize its gigantic limbs and vast dimensions. 

We state generally that he had a remarkable character. Char- 
acter is that which forms individuality. It comprises the intellec- 
tual, and especially the moral features. The word character is 
derived from another which means to mark, to cut, to engrave. 
As the features designate an individual for beauty or homeliness, 
so character marks a man for good or evil. Mr. Stephens' noble 
character was deeply outlined ; it was clear-cut, full ; it stood out 
in bold relief; its developments were many. First, he was a live 
man — wonderfully impressible by nature. With him, scenes, mem- 
ories, and words were things. Hence his live, retentive memory 
of printiples and facts, of mankind, faces, names, events ; hence 
his live communion with the past, the present, and the future. He 
was an intensely earnest man. We remark, secondly, that his live 
earnestness was sustained by amazing energy and tireless industry. 
Patient in toil, he mastered every subject he touched. He was one 
of the hardest and most successful workers of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. His intellectual labors were not confined to law and states- 



^laancUv ilamilton ^ttphenis!. 57 



raanship. In these, he had few equals on this continent. But he 
traveled into regions beyond, and made grand conquests in science 
and history. He was both an accurate and universal scholar. But 
we remark, thirdly, that his industry was controlled and stimu- 
lated by an amazing will-power, another development of his strong 
character. It was this positive, despotic faculty, the executive 
power of the soul, that forced his mind to constant, steady action, 
although often pleading the clogs of a feeble body. It was his 
will-power, under God, which supported him through so many 
seasons of death-sicknesses, and enabled him to make a journey of 
more than three score years and ten in so feeble a vehicle. Oh ! 
what wonders were wrought, and work accomplished in that frail 
tabernacle of clay. Hence, in the fourth place, his remarkably 
successful life. Success was the natural, the crowning result of 
earnestness, industry, and will-power. 

The life of Governor Stephens was a golden tissue of grand 
successes. As a struggling school-boy, he was successful. As a 
collegian at the State University, he was eminently successful, 
whether in departments of languages, science, or mathematics, or 
in the intellectual gladiation of debate. It was my privilege to 
see him graduate as one of the best scholars of his class in 1832 
nearly fifty-one years ago. He was successful as a teacher during 
a portion of 1832, and all of 1833. After a few months of dili- 
gent study, in 1834, he was admitted to the bar. In one year, 
says his life-long friend. General Toombs, he rose to success and 
high position. In 1836 he was sent to the Legislature, where he 
remained until 1842, serving in both houses with the most bril- 
liant success. We are greatly indebted to his influence and elo- 
quence for the construction of the State railroad. In 1843 he was 
elected to Congress, and continued a member until he resigned in 
1859. His reputation became national. He became a leader 
among great men, eminent for profound statesmanship, able de- 
bate, and wise forecast; and for scholarly attainments, was second 
only to the venerable John Quincy Adams, a student of four score 
years. Then came his connection with our late Confederacy ; his 
brief imprisonment; his sojourn at Liberty Hall, his cherished 



58 in Pmoty. 



home; then his return to Congress in 1873, where he remained 
until his election as Governor of Georgia last year, by an over- 
whelming majority. Thus has his long life been remarkable for 
its successes. 

A question arises, what has been the secret of his successful life? 
We answer, that in addition to his earnestness, his industry, and 
will-power, was added the distinguishing feature of his character — 
his incorruptible integrity. From the strictest rules of honor, 
truthfulness and justice, he has never swerved. He always held 
the respect of opponents, and even enemies. Truthful, conscien- 
tious and undisguised, all men knew where to find him. Although 
a candidate for the suffrages of the people, he would not purchase 
their favor by fawning or duplicity. He would not flatter Neptune 
for his trident, or Jupiter for his thunder. 

In close association with his spotless integrity, we mark wonder- 
ful benevolence, tender love of kindred, and uniform symj>athy 
with mankind, yea, even with the brute creation. He was instinct 
with the most intense humanity. His love to his immediate family 
was beautiful and tender. His grief at the death of kindred was 
wonderful and painful to behold. His generosity knew no bounds. 
He had aided over a hundred young men in securing an education. 
He was an utter stranger to the emotions of covetousness. His 
hospitality was princely. His house was the home, the resort of 
friends and stnuigers of all classes, condition and color. 

Such was Alexander Hamilton Stephens, a prince and a great 
man in our Amt'rican Israel. And the universal sorrow for him 
this day, calls uj) the great luitional grief which filled our country 
at the death oi' Alexander Hamilton, the friend of Washington. 
Said his eulogist, the distinguished Dr. John M. Mason : *' When 
Washington died, Hamilton was left. Now that Hamilton is 
gone, we have no Washington." When Cobb and Johnson and 
Hill were taken, we had Stephens left. Now that Stephens is 
taken, we have no Cobb, no Johnson, no Hill. 

And is this all the record we can make of our beloved and hon- 
ored Chief Magistrate ? Is there no record on high, as well as 
below? Has this great light gone out in obscure, perpetual dark- 



itUxantUv Utamiltott ^U\)Utn^, 59 



iiess? Has this uoble river of love and benevolence been emptied 
and lost in the ocean of eternity ? Shall we not meet again ? YeK, 
thank God ! If we trust in the Saviour in whom he trusted, we 
shall meet in that pure world of tearless joy, where adieus and 
farewells will be sounds unknown ! 

Mr. Stephens was the subject of early religious impressions, and 
a great student of the Bible in early boyhood. He was trained in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and united with the 
Presbyterian Church at the age of fifteen, at Washington, Ga., 
September 8th, 1827. He had the profoundest reverence for the 
word of God, and most happily interwove it as golden shreds in 
his speeches. 

During a severe illness a few years ago, in answer to a question 
touching his spiritual condition, he said : " In church connection 
I am an Old School Presbyterian, and my hope for salvation rests 
entirely on the merits of the Lord Jesus." He believed in the 
use and efficacy of prayer, and said he endeavored to live as 
though each day might be his last. He was not moved by the 
no-God theories of evolution, or deceiving errors of future resto- 
ration. Mark his own words in letters addressed to a beloved 
brother in college, to whom he stood in loeo parentis : 

" This is true religion : A change of heart from evil to good ; a 
renewal of the soul from low and groveling desires to an expanded 
and enlarged love for the universe, and an unbounded reverence 
for its author. To worship is the natural prompting after regen- 
eration — that process by which, in a mysterious way, the depraved 
nature of fallen man is changed and purified, by the exercise of a 
saving faith in Christ the Redeemer and Mediator ! " And to the 
same brother, who became the distinguished Judge Linton Ste- 
phens, " I believe in a special providence." " Of all Christian 
virtues, cultivate humility, meekness, and a spirit of dependence 
on the great Ruler of the Universe for every good and perfect 
gift." " The world is transitory at best, and little in it worth 
living for but the prospect it affijrds of a blessed immortality." 

Mr. Stephens writes as follows to a friend on the 29th of 
March, 1863: 



60 ^n Pcmonu 



" This is a gloomy day ! I have much to make me melancholy; 
indeed, I should have been a victim of nielanclioly long ago if I 
had not resisted it with all my might. 1 now feel as if I had 
conquered in the conflict. This I do not think 1 have accom- 
plished by myself; I feel within that I have been sustained by an 
unseen power, on whom I have relied and to whom I have looked 
in my worst trials, even in the darkest hours, with hope and assu- 
rance that all would be well under His guidance and protection. 
I do not feel justified before Him, but I do feel that with His 
long-suifering and loving kindness, my frailties will be graciously 
pardoned, my weakness strengthened, and patience and fortitude 
imparted to bear the ills of life; and by discharging my duties to 
the best of my ability during this probationary existence, I shall 
be fitted for that higher sphere hereafter, where there will be no 
more pain, suffering, trouble, and no more sin ! These are the 
principles and convictions on which I act. I have for years made 
it my business to devote a portion of each day to prayer, in com- 
muning with this unseen, all-pervading power — with God. I was 
in early life deeply impressed with what is called religious feeling, 
but after I grew up and entered the world, these feelings greatly 
subsided. I at one time became skeptical, callous. The world 
was a mystery ; I could see nothing good in it. I was miserable, 
and that continually. But coming to the conclusion, after a close 
self-examination, that the error might be in myself, 1 determined 
to adopt a new line of policy for my conduct. The earlier im- 
pressions of life soon revived. I felt a better, a much more con- 
tented, and ha|»pier man. The feeling grew with its culture — it 
softened the temper, awakened deeper emotions of reverence, grati- 
tude and love. It gave consolation in grief, strength in resisting 
temptation. Jt im[)ressed the mind with man's weakness and 
frailties, and his dependence on God. It seemed to elevate the 
soul and put it in unison with its Maker. This is what sustains 
me. Such is the character of my religion : I make no boast of it." 

In this summary of Mr. Stephens' faith, we recognize the car- 
dinal doctrines of repentance, regeneration, faith in the Lord Jesus, 
humility, love to God and man, trust in a special Providence, and 



g^lexander fvamiUon .^tcphcn.s'. 61 



the privilege and comfort of daily secret communion with God. 
And there is an absence of self-righteousness and vain-boasting of 
his unnumbered charities. In such a practical religion, we appre- 
hend the secret of his great power. For, as a prince, he had power 
with God and with men, and |)revailed. 

To his live earnestness, his pauseless energy, his will-power, his 
integrity, wise forecast, intense humanity and benevolence, there 
was superadded the glorious crown of that piety which made the 
God of the Bible his strong habitation, whereunto he might con- 
tinually resort. 

His conscientious declining to enter the ministry was doubtless 
divinely ordered, that he might illustrate to the whole country the 
model of a Christian statesman — one who would often turn from 
the shallow cisterns of human wisdom to the fountain of living 
waters. 

But his toils and pains are ended ! The throbbing heart and 
weary body, the brilliant eye and tireless mind, have closed their 
mission. From that placid face, so beautifully serene in death, 
gentle whispers seem to murmur, and to say: "I have entered 
into rest — strange, sweet rest ! The first I have known in seventy 
long years ! All is peace ! — ' the peace of God that passeth under- 
standing !' " 

His death is a great public calamity; but we must not sorrow 
as those who have no hope. 

" O gracious ,God ! not gain) ess is our loss — 
A sunbeam gilds the darkest frown ; 
And though his people stagger 'neath the cross, 
He rises with the crown." 

His mantle has fallen on a most worthy successor. God has 
taken him at his best. He has been gathered to his rest in full 
age, like as a shock of corn cometh in, in his season. His work 
was done; he was a finished man. He cultivated his faculties 
most efficiently. He has done more than all our public men by 
leaving, in his books, imperishable monuments of his genius and 
industry. Georgia had bestowed on him her highest honors, and 



62 I« Pem0ry. 



his last public utterance and work were for his beloved Georgia. 
He was emphatically the son of the State. He lived and died in 
her service. Great and glorious man, we will remember thy name 
and cherish thy virtues, and tell them to the generations following. 

" With us thy name shall live 
In long succeeding years, 
' Embalmed by all our hearts can give, 

Our praises and our tears." 

Sages in years to come will tell of thy wisdom, poetry will em- 
balm in rhythmic measures thy virtues, music will chant thy 
praises, and history will fondly linger over the story of thy life, 
so pure, so consecrated, and so grand. That chapter in Georgia's 
life will be ever luminous, and to coming generations a pillar of 
cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, to lead them onward 
and upward." 

At the conclusion of the discourse, Dr. Jones introduced Rev. 
T. DeWitt Talmage, who was asked to deliver the closing prayer. 
Advancing to the edge of the stand and raising his hand. Dr. Tal- 
mage said : " Let us pray ! " 

The vast throng arose and the great preacher continued : 
'* From everlasting to everlasting Thou art God. The years of 
our life come and go, and whiten the hair and slacken the step, 
and push us tottering into the grave ; but Thy years have no end. 
We bow before Thee this afternoon to mourn a national calamity, 
and to escort this body to the grave. We thank Thee for the life 
of this good man, the honesty of his precepts, the devotion of his 
life, the generosity of his manner, and for the magnificence of his 
great soul. We thank Thee for all that he did for his native 
State; we thank Thee for that which he did for the whole coun- 
try ; we thank Thee for the example of his lif^* in behalf of all 
posterity. Show us all that is good of it, and pn^vide us against 
all that is wrong. But, Oh, Lord, we want Thy comfort. We 
want it to come, first of all, upon his bereaved kindred. Be their 
God and portion. May they realize that this loved one is only 
gone before to that land where God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes. Oh, God, anoint them with the everlasting balm of 



§^Iaattdct; ftamiltott ^tcirttcnisi. 63 



Thy love and sympathy, and hold them up and say unto them, 
' When thou passeth through the waters I will be with you, and 
the rivers shall not overflow you,' God grant Thy blessing upon 
this city, and upon this State, and upon this country. May we 
follow this good man so far as he followed that which was right. 
I pray that we may consecrate ourselves to Thy service, and learn 
the solemn lessons of this afternoon, and may we all look forward 
to that time when we shall meet Thee. And when the toil of life 
is ended, and we have entered that assemblage with the ten thou- 
sand times ten thousand and the hundred and forty and four 
thousand, we shall ascribe all praises to Thy name. Bless this 
solemn, (ender interview to the good of our souls, go with us to 
the grave, guide us by Thy counsel while we live. When we are 
in d:irkness be our light; when we are in sickness be our physi- 
cian ; when we are dying be our life ; and when we are dead be 
our resurrection ; and the glory, and the praise, and the salvation, 
and the song shall be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Amen." 

After the audience had resumed their seats, the choir sang: 

Nearer, my God, to Thee ! 

Nearer to Thee ! 
E'en though it be a cross 

That raiseth me, 
Still all my song shall be, 
Nearer, my God, to Thee ! 

Nearer to Thee ! 

Though like a wanderer. 

Weary and lone, 
Darkness comes over me, 

My rest a stone — 
Yet in my dreams I'd be 
Nearer, my God, to Thee ! 

Nearer to Thee ! 

There let my way appear 

Steps unto heaven ! 
All that Thou sendest me 

In mercy given ! 
Angels to beckon me 
Nearer, my God, to Thee ! 

Nearer to Thee ! 



(i4 in Pemoty. 



The benediction was then pronounced by Dr. Gwin, and the 
ceremonies at the hall were ended. The audience remained seated 
until the remains were carried out by the Marietta street enti'ance 
and placed in the hearse. Then the procession was made up and 
moved slowly toward the cemetery. It was a mile and a half 
long, and was the most remarkable sj)ectacle of the kind ever wit- 
nessed in Georgia. There was a deep solemnity in the music of 
the muffled drums and the sweet sad strains of the funeral marches 
that were played by the band. 



Marshal and Assistants, (mounted.) 

Officiating Ministers and Pall Bearers. 

Hearse, escorted by detail of Eight Georgia Huzzars on each side, (mounted,) 

and followed by the Governor's Aids. 
The Family. 

The Governor and State House Officers. 
The Foreign Consuls. 
The Judiciary, including Judges of the Supreme Court, the Superior and City 

Courts, and of the United States Courts. 
Members of the General Assembly. 
Members and ex- Members of Congress. 
United States Officials. 
Municipal Authorities. 

County Officials from all the Counties of the State. 
Trustees and Faculty of the University of Georgia. 
Military Organizations. 

Organizations and Societies in Bodies or by Delegations. 
Visiting Delegations. 
Citizens on Foot. 
Citizens in Carriages. 



fatl ^eatm-. 



Ex-Governor Joseph E. Brown, Alfred Baker, Esq., 
Ex-Governor James M. Smith, Hon. Augustus Reese, 
Ex-Governor Alfred H.Colquitt, Captain Henry P. Hill, 
Ex-Governor Benjamin Conlcy, Colonel John H. Estill, 
Ex-Governor Rufus B. Bullock, Robert Schmidt, P!^sq., 
General John B. Gordon, Dr. H. H. Carey, 



giUxaiuUt |lamilt0tt ^t^ph^nis. 65 



Hon. Alexander M. Speer, Judge William W. Weaver, 

General Robert Toombs, Hon. William Wilder, 

General Henry R. Jackson, John H. Flynn, Esq., 

Hon. Robert P. Trippe, Joseph Myers, Esq., 

Hon. Campbell Wallace, John F. Arm,strong, Esq., 

Hon. N. L. Trammell, Charles Spaeth, Esq., 

Hon. Milton A. Candler, Hon. Joel A. Bill'ups, 

Dr. H. V. M. Miller, Hon. Charles W. DuBose, 

Dr. H. A. Steiner, S. J. Farmer, Esq., 

Colonel Richard M. Johnson, Judge James S. Hook, 

General Pliillip Cook, General M. A. Stovall, 
General J. J. Jones, E. R. Schneider, Esq., Hon. Patrick Walsh. 

Pilitavvj (Jtompattie^. 

Savannah Volunteer Guards, Lieut. Col. Garrard. 

Augusta Clarke Light Infantry, Capt. J. O. Clarke. 

" Clinch Rifles, Capt. Bean. 

Columbus City Light Guard, Capt. J. W. Woolfolk. 

" Guards, - - Capt. W. S. Sheppard. 

Macon Southern Guards, Capt. G. W. Findley. 

Griffin Spalding Greys, .-..-- Lieut. Col. Newton. 
First Regiment Georgia Volunteers, - - - Lieut. Col. Reilly. 

Savannah Republican Blues, - Lieut. Dixon. 

Irish Jasper Greens, Lieut. McGrath. 

Oglethorpe Light Infantry, - - - Lieut. Landershine. 

German Volunteers, Lieut. Kuck. 

Cadets, . - Lieut. Mell. 

Military Academy, 

Americus Light Infantry, Capt. Jossey. 

Griffin Light Guards, Capt. J. S. Bass, 

Augusta Stephens Hose Company, - - . . Capt. W. F. Law. 

Atlanta Musical Band, * - - 

Atlanta Gate City Guards, ..... Lieut. W. C. Sparks. 
Savannah Chatham Artillery, - - - - Lieut. R. F. Harmon. 
" Georgia Huzzars, --.--- Lieut. J. H. Johnson. 
Atlanta Georgia Cadets, - (colored companies.) - - Capt. Bentley. 
Augusta Douglass Light Inf'Antry, . . . . Capt. Cummings. 

Rome Star Guards, Capt. Higginbotham. 

Bibb County Blues, Capt. S. Moseley. 

Atlanta Capitol Guards, Capt. Wimbish. 

Atlanta Georgia Volunteers, .... Capt. Jackson McHenry. 

Macon Lincoln Guards, 

5 



66 itt Pm0ty. 



To tltc CSvavc. 



<^: 



After the impressive ceremonies at the capitol, the great crowd 
of people poured out on the living sea below. Under the solemn 
inspiration of the " Dead March " from a dozen brass bands, the 
great procession began its mournful pilgrimage. 

Never until that hour was there any adequate conception of the 
immense concourse of people gathered in Atlanta to pay the last 
tribute to the mortal remains of the immortal Georgian. Looking 
down from the capitol, there were in the wide expanse of Marietta 
street and the square at the intersection of Peachtree, Line and 
Decatur at least ten thousand persons. But after the procession 
turned down Broad street, the crowd seemed fully as great. Side- 
walks were packed, and the funeral cortege wound its way in the 
street amid a throng that res[)ectfully yielded its space with uncov- 
ered heads. For two hours the street-cars and every variety of 
vehicle had been pouring people to Oakland Cemetery. Many 
persons supposed the funeral march would be down Decatur street 
in a direct line to the cemetery, and that street was full from the 
capitol to the wide gates of the solemn city. But on Hunter street 
the scene was indeed remarkable. 

Passing down Broad amid the mass of people of every condi- 
tion and every nationality represented in this cosmopolitan city, 
with every window opened to the raw breeze, and filled with faces 
peering out on the black line, it turned up Hunter street. That 
broad avenue, for the first time in its history, was literally filled 
with people, and not with Atlanta people alone, but with men and 
women from every (uty and almost every town and hamlet in the 
State. The head of the procession was almost to the cemetery 
before the last of it had left the capitol. Many of the civil and 
military delegations were marching eight abreast, and very close 
together, but even then there was a line of two miles moving to- 
ward the open tomb, where already a multitude awaited their ar- 



gtlcvamUv ftamiltan ^t^iilutt,si. 67 



rival. They had been gathering in the broad avenues and the 
narrow ways of Oakland cemetery for three hours. Save when the 
women bear flowers to freshen the graves of the heroic Confeder- 
ate dead, no such gathering was ever known in that silent city. 
The crowd had gathered in circles about the Cotting vault, where 
it was known the remains were to be placed. The vault was 
erected by the Cotting family to receive the remains of David G. 
Cotting, who was Secretary of State. On the brow of the vault 
rested beautiful floral ornaments. The coat-of-arms of Georgia 
was beautifully wrought in white hyacinths, rose-buds, mignonettes 
and violets. Another design of the arras was presented by the 
ladies of Augusta, and bore the name of their city just beneath 
the word " Constitution," both in blue flowers beautifully worked 
amid the tender white blossoms. 

The hearse was stopped at the rear of the vault, and the pall- 
bearers came forward to bear the remains out of the solemn car- 
riage to their last resting-place. Approaching the vault were 
Right Rev. Bishop Beckwith, Rev. John Jones, Governor Boyn- 
ton, Senator Colquitt, Senator Brown, Charles C. Jones, Henry R. 
Jackson, Chief Justice Jackson, John B. Gordon, Justice Martin 
J. Crawford and the following gentlemen from Augusta : Joseph 
Myers, John F. Armstrong, M. A. Stovall, E. R. Schneider and 
Charles Spaeth. The coffin was borne from the hearse by the 
members of the Governor's staff" as follows : J. F. Burke, of At- 
lanta; J. C. Printup, of Rome ; Litt. C. Jones, of Atlanta; Doug- 
las Wikle, of Cartersville ; Isaac Russell, of Savannah ; Gunby 
Jordan, of Columbus ; W. M. Snead, of Savannah. 

Bishop Beckwith and Rev. Mr, Jones marched in front of the 
pall-bearers, and as the Bishop stepped on the walk leading to the 
vault, he began the recital of the grand burial ceremony of the 
Episcopal Church, *' I am the resurrection and the life." Every 
hat was raised, and in reverential silence bowed the vast multitude 
as the solemn ceremony was repeated by the Bishop. Last around 
the coffin were Mr. John A. Stephens and family, Mr. Clarence 
Stephens, Mr. W. W. Simpson, Colonel Avery and family, Mr. 
Seidell, Dr. Steiner, Dr. Raines and family. 



68 itt pUmovy. 



The vault door was closed by the sexton, Mr. W. B. Bonnell, 
and the bands repeating the " Dead March," began the departure 
of the military from the scene. The crowds followed, but for an 
hour after there were thousands wandering in the silent avenues 
and coming to bid a last farewell to the vault where the precious 
mortal relic had just been laid. A more peaceful scene cannot be 
imagined. The sun sank as the ceremony came to its close. The 
shadows fell, deepening the gloom of the general loss, and touch- 
ing with a tenderer pathos the hearts of those who just then fully 
realized it. One bright star peered out before its time, and sent 
through all the space of its distance a clear light to speak of the 
" resurrection and the life," and then around it beamed a coronal 
of golden light. As the heavy veils of darkness fell, the last foot- 
fall echoed over the stony path and out of the gate, when the bell 
tolled for its close, leaving under the silent stars, in that triumph- 
ant grave, a great soul awaiting the resurrection. 



(!r'On()vc;sii5i0nal (TviVutf, 



Congress of the United States, 

In the House of Representatives, 

Washington, D. C, March 3, 1883. 

Resolved, That this House has just 'learned, with the deepest 
sorrow, of the death of Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, Governor 
of the State of Georgia, and so long a useful, faithful and distin- 
guished member of this House, and that this House herewith ox- 
presses its heartfelt sympathy with the people, not only of Georgia, 
but with the })eople of the whole country, in the loss of a states- 
man and a patriot. 

Attest: Edward McPherson, Clerk. 



^Ifxanrtcv fuuniUow .^ttpluitsi. 69 



State of Vermont, 
Executive Department, Shelburn, March 6, 1883. 

As a mark of respect for the memory of Alexander H. Stephens, 
late Governor of Georgia, and as a token of sympathy for the 
people of that State, I request that all State offices be closed on 
Thursday, the 8tli instant, the day of his funeral, and direct that 
the national flag be displayed at half-mast from the capitol build- 
ing at Montpelier until sundown of that day. 

By the Governor- : John L. Barstow. 

Geo. W. Wales, 

SeG^y of Civil and Military Affairs. 



^fvmon at %tv, ®. §« Witt ©almage in \\\t ^fooHlp 5^al)crttade. 

Text : Isaiah Ix. 20. — " A little one becomes a thousand." 

In this prophecy is set forth that which we have all noticed, 
that it is not the amount of avoirdupois weight which decides 
effectiveness. Many a man with vast physical equipment has not 
weighed a half-ounce on the side of the world's betterment, while 
many a one of insignificant stature, and feeble forearm, and de- 
crepit limb has weighed a t;»n on the right side of the moral bal- 
ances. David, the King of Israel, was so small a mite that he 
upset the gravity of the giant, Goliath, yet the sword of the giant 
is hung up in history as impotent beside the sling of his dwarf 
combatant. Napoleon was only five feet in stature. Archibald 
Alexander, though head and shoulders above other preachers of 
his time in theological attainments, was not more than up to their 
elbows in physical height. Some of the grandest, mightiest and 
most decisive and resounding strokes that have been given for God 
and the Church and the world have been given by some whose 
bodily equipment has been only a pledge for the soul's earthly 
retention. Isaac Watts set his diminutive personal presence in 
immortal rythm. One such man as any I have mentioned, though 



70 itt Pcmoty. 



built on coutracted corporal scale, in intellectual or moral force 
amounted to a thousand ordinary people. Their achievements were 
far beyond anything their hotly prophesied, and so my text iiad its 
echo — "And a little one became a thousand." 

Among these men of small body and groat soul I place the 
name of one, the announcement of whose death falls upon me with 
this evening's shadow. Alexander H. Stephens, Governor of Geor- 
gia, and late member of the Congress of the United States, is no 
more, for God hath taken him. With him 1 have had warm per- 
sonal friendship, and the tidings came to me this afternQou more 
like a sharp blast out of the North than a message from the balmy 
South. I have nothing to do with Alexander H. Stephens as a 
politician, but as a warm friend, as a devoted Christian, as a great 
and magnificent soul wrapped up in the frailest earthly tenement, 
I have something loving and gladsome and earnest to say. Though 
a little one, he was a thousand. 

He was, first of all, a Christian, a member of our beloved de- 
nomination, bosom friend of and life companion with Rev. Dr. 
Samuel K. Talmage, whose name, in all branches of my own fam- 
ily, is an inspiration and a benediction. The theologian of whom 
I now speak, like his distinguished friend whom I commemorate, 
was a little one who became a thousand. Yes, Alexander H. 
Stephens believed in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven 
and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, with more 
brain than all the infidels now blatant and brailing and blasphem- 
ing around Washington. He was a believer in the Bible and 
Christianity, and all up and down the South are ministers of the 
gospel who went iuto college and theological seminary and into 
pulpit through Alexander II. Stephens' pocket. With no princely 
estate, 1 am told that for the last thirty years there has not been 
an hour in which he has not been supporting men on their way to 
medicine or the law or the pulpit. Starting for the ministry and 
turning aside for the legal profession, yet preaching to-day all over 
the South the gospel of good tidings which shall yet be to all 
people. He was one of the few men who, like James Lennox, of 
New York, could stay outside of the marriage relation and yet be- 



^k.vatt(lti' pamiltott ^tiJirlt^u^, Yl 



come kinder and more genial and more sympathetic and more gen- 
erous as the years went by. First, he honored God, and next he 
honored Christian womanhood, and wherever there was a burdened 
man who wanted help, or a wayward man wlio wanted opportunity 
to return, or a struggling man who wanted knowledge, there was 
one who might count on Mr. Stephens as an ally. Within ten 
days I have heard his colored servants in most unlimited terms 
speak his praise. 

His home at Crawford vi lie, Georgia; his Executive mansion at 
Atlanta, Georgia ; his rooms at the National Hotel at Washington, 
the centre of helpfulness and good cheer and hospitality and cul- 
ture ; his heart large enough for the whole world to enter ; only 
eighty-five pounds in physical weight; at any moment within the 
last forty years the possibility that through the insufficient bars of 
flesh his spirit might fly away. 

Though he lived in stormy times, all who knew him knew that 
he was a champion of peace, the very last man in his State to sur- 
render to the decree of secession, crying out, after General Pope's 
defeat in Virginia, for compromise, gladly going to Fortress Mon- 
roe to meet Wm. H. Seward in treaty about the best way of stop- 
ping the war, and, after the close of the great struggle, everywhere 
counseling amity on the largest scale and forgetfulness of old 
grudges. In November, 1860, Mr. Stephens made the following 
remarks in the House of Representatives, Georgia : 

"When [ look around and see our prosperity in everything — 
agriculture, commerce, art, science and every department of educa- 
tion, physical and mental as well as moral advancement, and our 
colleges — I think, in the face of such an exhibition, if we can, 
without the loss of power or any essential right or interest, remain 
in the Union, it is our duty to ourselves and to posterity to — let us 
not too readily yield to this temptation — do so. Our first parents, 
the great progenitors of the human race, were not without a like 
temptation when in the Garden of Eden. They were led to be- 
lieve that their condition would be bettered — that their eyes would 
be opened, and that they would become as gods. They, in an evil 
hour, yielded instead of becoming gods ; they only saw their own 



72 1» Pemovy. 



nakedness. I look upon this country, with our institutions, as the 
Eden of the Workl — the paradise of the universe. It may be that 
out of it we may become greater and more prosperous, but I am 
candid and sincere in telling you that I fear, if we rashly evince 
passion, and without sufficient cause shall take that step, instead of 
becoming greater or more peaceful, prosperous and hap})y — instead 
of becoming gods, we will become demons, and at no distant day 
commence cutting one another's throats. This is my apprehension. 
Let us, therefore, whatever we do, meet these difficulties, great as 
they are, like wise and sensible men, and consider them in the light 
of all the consequences which may attend our action. Let us see 
first clearly where the path of duty leads, and then we may not 
fear to tread therein." 

I read this to show that in his bosom the dove of peace always 
settled. He would not hurt a fly, much less a man. Had there 
been ten such men at the South and ten such men at the North, 
the grave-trenches would never have been dug, and the great 
shadows of bereavement would not have fallen on every mountain 
and valley and home from the Penobscot to the Alabama, and from 
the Canadas to the Gulf. One such man at the North zone and 
one such man at the South could not stem the overwhelming tides. 
A little one might become a thousand, but could not become forty 
millions. 

What an example for all ages as to what invalidism may ac- 
complish is this one sick and emaciated man now departed ! He 
was not well for sixty years, first going on one cane, then on two 
canes, then on cane and crutch, then on two crutches, afterward to 
wheeled chair — wheeled into the railroad train, wheeled into the 
steamboat, wheeled into the hotel, wheeled into the Congressional 
hall, wheeled into the gubernatorial mansion, wheeled on to the 
stage of the Opera House at Savannah, where he took his final 
cold, wheeled up to the sick-bed on which he was laid down to 
die. What inspiration for all invalids! Why give up the battle 
of life because some of your weapons are captured ? Take from 
the world the work of invalids and you make an appalling sub- 
traction — Robert Hall, an invalid ; Edward Payson, an invalid ; 



§^k.vatt(Uv TvHmittott ,^tcphftt,$'. 73 



Richard Baxter, an invalid. The men of O'Brien, in Ireland, 
were in hospitals. The battle went against them. These men of 
O'Brien begged that they might be brought out from hospital, and, 
as they could not stand alone, that stakes might be driven into the 
ground, and that they might be fastened to these stakes. With 
one side fastened to the stakes, and the right arm free, they fought, 
and they fought to desperation and to death. John Milton saw 
farther without eyes than thousands of men with them. Look out 
for the soldier's crutch and the old man's staff if they be wielded 
for patriotism or Christianity ! In garrets, in cellars, in sick- 
rooms, in asylums, in hospitals, how many of the Lord's troops, 
some in one way, some in another, efficient for God. Many a man 
with one arm has accomplished more for the kingdom of Christ 
than others with two. It is not the number of guns we carry, but 
the way we unlimber them. It is not our grandeur of opportunity, 
but the use we make of it. With two eyes and two ears and two 
feet, we may not be worthy the space we occupy, while Alexander 
H. Stephens can make his wheeled chair a conqueror's chariot. 
Sportsmen go out to see two stout pugilists batter each other into 
indistinguishable visage, but I go out in my discourse to see poor 
eye-sight, and shriveled arm, and palsied foot, and rheumatic knee 
capture Congressional hall, and Senatorial chamber, and guberna- 
torial chair, and the respect of all Christendom. 

More than anything am I impressed, as I see this little one 
become a thousand, with the fact that the soul is distinct and inde- 
pendent of the body. That man was a fool who tiiought the puny 
creature of the invalid's chair was Alexander H. Stephens. It 
was only the shell of him. It was only the scaffold of an Alham- 
bra. It was only the anchor of a winged ship, ready to sail away 
as soon as the impediment was lifted. Away with all your agnos- 
tic talk about the soul as being only a development of the body ! 
Do you really think that the great Architect of the universe would 
build such a magnificent cupola on such an insufficient foundation ? 
No ! the poor body that this week bereft Georgians shall put away 
into dust is not Alexander H. Stephen. He lives ! He widens 
out into grander existence. He has moved up and on. He has 



74 ftt Ittcmovy. 



gone up among the giants. Never has there been in this country 
a grander lesson of immortality for the American people. So 
much soul and so little body ! 

What a relief it must be to get out of the cripple's vehicle ! 
What a promotion from the arras of the dusky servants who 
helped him from room to room, and up the marble steps of the 
Capitol at Washington, now that he has reached the arms of an- 
gels, and the arms of Christ, and the arms of God ! Wing instead 
of crutch ; health instead of sickness ; rapture instead of pain ; life 
instead of death ; heaven instead of earth. Dear, gracious spirit, 
fare thee well till we meet again under cloudless skies and in 
eternal summer. With more meaning than ever before that little 
one has become a thousand. 

What a mighty place heaven must be ! From exalted and from 
humble spheres the great souls are ascending. Roll on, sweet day 
which shall bring us into companionship with those who on earth 
were so kind and gentle and loving, and who, having passed on, 
are now more radiant than when here we knew them. Yes, though 
you and I are so weak now, we shall be mighty. It doth not yet 
appear what we shall be. Ten times better than now, a hundred 
times better than now, five hundred times better — ^yes, a little 
one shall become a thousand. A thousand times more helpful- 
ness ; a thousand times more strength ; a thousand times more 
like God. I am glad for this additional evidence that Chris- 
tianity is not an imbecile fabrication. If it had been a sham, 
Alexander H, Stephens was the man to have found it out. I am 
glad to point to his name on the scroll of the gospel mighties. On 
that same scroll the Clays, the Calh.tuns, the Sir William Hamil- 
tons, the Blackstones, the Raphaels, the Mozarts — any one of them 
a thousand. Young man, scoffed at for your verdancy and weak- 
ne.-:s in believing in the religion of your fathers, I advise you to 
carry in your pocket a scroll a yard long, all full of the names of 
those who, like Alexander H. Stephens, believed in Christ and 
the Bible, and then ask the scoffer U> explain that. Yes, copy 
down the words of the strongest American intellect of his times — 
the dying experiences of Daniel Webster, a warm friend of the 



^U.VHttrtfv pawiltutt ^tfjjh^u.^. 75 



illustrious Georgian whom this night we mourn. The dying man 
at Marshfield ejaculated, " Amen, amen ! Even so, come. Lord 
Jesus ! " 

" Should worlds conspire to drive me hence, 
Moveless and firm this heart shall lie, 
Resolved — for that is my last defense — 
If I must perish, here to die." 

" Lord, I believe ; help Thou mine unbelief." " I shall be to- 
night in life and joy and blessedness." In that glorious hope 
died Daniel Webster, the expounder of the Constitution ; in that 
glorious hope expired Alexander H. Stephens, the illustrious 
Georgian. 

CBxtvatt from |Hv,$. Pavy (!^. gvyan'.«i iivUmtf. 

He died just as the day was breaking. It was the hour he had 
lately said he looked for death to come. Once, this winter, a 
friend took him some flowers. In the conversation that ensued, 
he spoke of Henry Timrod's poems — of that saddest, sweetest one, 
his favorite, called " A Common Thought " — the poem poor Tim- 
rod had whispered with husky lips just before he died. Mr. 
Stephens repeated it almost in full. 

" Somewhere on this earthly planet, 
In the dust of flowers to be — 
In the dewdrop and the sunshine. 
Waits a solemn hour for me. 

" At the wakeful hour of midnight 

I behold it dawn in mist ; 

And I hear a sound of sobbing 

Through the darkness — hist ! oh", hist ! 

" In a dim and murky chamber 
I am breathing life away ; 
Some one draws a curtain softly, 
And I watch the broad' ning day. 

" As it purples in the zenith. 
As it brightens on the lawn. 
There's a hush of death about me. 
And a whisper, ' He is gone.' " 



76 in Pcmovy. 



" I have always thought I should die at daybreak," he went on. 
" Most people die between midnight and dawn. Physicians say 
that the life-forces are then at the lowest ebb, the pulse at its 
slowest beat." 

We shall never see his counterpart. More astute statesmen may 
arise; there will never be a man whom circumstances and peculiar 
organization will unite to make a figure so unique, so complete in 
all that enchains affection, that inspires intellect and ennobles the 
heart. 

Bom of the people — the representative people — he had in him a 
strong fibre of sympathy wi<h the yeomanry of his land. Reared 
among the rural scenes and farm people, he carried with him 
through all the scholastic culture and patrician associations of after 
years a fragrance, as it were, of tlie fields — an atmosphere of 
simplicity and honesty such as forms the heritage of the race of 
Southern farmers. It was this blending of the yeoman and the 
patrician, the patriarch and the statesman, which gave him his 
wide sympathies and his many-sidedness of character. Add to 
this the pathos of a life of suffering and self-repression, and the 
sweetening, secret influence of a subtle vein of poetry, hidden as 
dew in a rose's cup, and you will havr; the key to his hold upon 
the hearts of the people. 

Courage was the chief characteristic of this physically frail hero; 
courage to stand by his convictions when he believed them right, 
change them when he saw them wrong; courage to defend his 
positions and his people; courage to repress the claims of self; 
courage to lay the hand of iron will upon Pain that goaded him 
all his life, and Despondency that sought to cloud his faculties. 

" The bravest are the tenderest." Tender and trusting and piti- 
ful as a child was this strong-brained man, whose charitable deeds 
are unnumbered, and whose hand was ever ready to help, whose 
voice was ever n.-ady to soothe and cheer. O grand head and 
Christ-like heart! — woman's sweetness and man's strength! — 
never again shall we see you united in a mortal being. 



gtlcvattcUt llamitton ^ftepltcnsf. 77 



gatm tjy M^wl ft. liayur. 

Past midnight now; the chill March morn is nigh, 
When they that hearken catch one weary sigh, 
And, his long martyrdom, his life-toil done. 
He soared beyond the starlight and the sun. 
O life sublime ! O victory hardly won ! 

Veil, Georgia! veil thy face, and bow thy head — • 
The noblest heart in all thy realm is dead ! 

****** 
Unveil thy face ! uplift thy sovereign head — 
They dote who say the grand old man is dead. 

Beyond the loftiest planet's mystic sphere 
He rules in more than royal purple here. 

Dead ! while his Influence, borne on all the winds, 
Throbs like a pulse of fire in kindling minds ! 

Dead ! while the vital sweetness of his fame 
Rises serene as perfumed altar flame ! 

Dead! while in vain the wave-like years shall roll 
To sweep his Image from his Country's soul ! 

Dead ! while in reverent homesteads, near and far, 
His sacred memory brightens like a star, 
More clearly beautiful, more jiurely proud. 
In fadeless fresco on death's somber cloud I 

Dead ! while from stately hall and smouldering camp. 
Dives and Lazarus, merchant-prince and tramp. 
One voice ascends, of grief, devotion, praise. 
And love's rich halo crowns his perfect days ! 

While touched to tender glory, death's eclipse 
Blooms with auroral tints of childish lips — 
Which made (how oft !) his withered cheek to glow. 
And flash their rosebuds near his locks of snow ! 

Dead ! nay — his ^ngle life, so true, so tried. 
Becomes henceforth divinely multiplied. 
To find, while this his out-worn frame departs. 
Its resurrection in a million hearts ! 

* * * * * ■ * 

An echo answers, past the shimmering line 
Of the far hill-slopes and the mountain pine — 
Past the blue fountains of those vernal skies. 
Misted and dim as some sad angel's eyes — 
An echo, tender, silvery, and remote. 
The song-thrill melting in a heavenly throat. 
Yet quivering still with a rapture so divine 
It can but seem we hear the dying note 
Of choral welcome, on whose tide updrawn. 
His happy Soul hath-'found the primal dawn, 
And the long rest which breathes in Paradise ! 



^n pjcmoty. 



So it is o'er ! Three score long years and ten 

He fought his fight ; 
A few revolving months rolled swiftly on — 

Down dropped the night ! 
His restless couch he meekly pressed, when lo ! 

A seraph band 
Swept from the skies, struck off the shackling clay. 
And bore his freed soul on their wings away 
P'rom earth's gray glooms to find a glorious day 

In heaven's blest land ! 

A good man sleeps — a great man rests from toil. 

And yet we weep ! 
The State is stricken and a nation bows 

In sorrow deep; 
On grief so just let no irreverent word 

Or thought encroach ; 
For his high aims, grand thoughts, and actions pure, 
All coming men shall hold his fame secure, 
And name him still " a chevalier sans puer 

Et sans reproche," 

'Tis well ! to rest, so bravely won, consign 

The worn-out frame ; 
Give to the grave the fragile clay, but keep 

The deathless name ! 
No more those flashing eyes, that mirrored erst 

His pure, proud soul, 
Melt with soft pity or grow dark with scorn; 
But tired and fainting, weary, weak and worn. 
He closed their lids — and lo ! the radiant dawn 

Announced his goal. 

When through the blue empyrean vast his soul 

Soared up to God, 
What rapture thrilled it as the voice divine 

Spake his award ! 
" Well done, thou good and faithful one, and true — 

Enter thy rest. * 

Stand in the sight of God, erect and strong ; 
Rest in these bowers of bliss, while angels' song 
And all the choirs of Heav'n the notes prolong, 

A saint is blest." 

Could it have added to thy rapture then. 

If 'mid that host 
Thy eagle glance had caught the eye of one 

Long loved and lost ? 
If He, the Lord of all, with look of love 

Antl accent sweet, 
Hadst said, " Behold thy brother, ransomed free 
By ruddy drops I shed on Calvary" — 
And thou and he hadst sunk in ecstacy 

At Jesus' feet ! 



i^Iaand^r pamiUon ^teiih^nsi. 79 



Let us believe it ! God is merciful, 

And it were fit ! 
On earth, like David's unto Jonathan's, 

Their souls were knit ; 
And when God called the one, the other's life 

Was incomplete. 
If to the blessed peace and rest of Aiden 
That added boon of gracious love were given, 
How blest were he beyond the hosts of Heav'n- 

Victor complete ! 

Sparta, Ga., March 8, 1883. 



**ocm by (!*havUis! W. Mwhrnv. 

" We leave the Great Commoner in the zenith of his glory." 

Macaulay. 

Great Commoner ! All that remains of thee 

To eye and tender touch perceptible, 

To-day, in soil that thou hast loved so well. 

With tears and reverent rite entombed shall be, 

To moulder there to ashes peacefully; 

Death claims his mortmain dues his gains to swell — 

To him we give thy body's brittle shell. 

Thy soul to God and immortality ! 

Friend ! Patriot ! Statesman ! Lover of thy kind ! 

Ah, nobler still than each of these or all — 

Though thou of each and all wast crowned the best — 

Christian ! of Christ-like mould m heart and mind. 

On whom could now ///j' prophet-mantle fall 

Since thy great soul hath entered into rest .'' 

Atlanta, March 8, 1883. 




80 in Pmoty. 



TESTIMONIES AND FA(;TS OF THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF GOV- 
ERNOR STEPHENS, FURNISHED AT THK JIEQUEST OF DR. JONES, 
BY REV. A. C. THOMAS, OF SPARTA, GA. ; REV. DR. D. L. BUT- 
TOLPH, OF MARIETTA, GA. ; AND REV. J. H. ECHOLS, OF LEX- 
INGTON, GA. 

Sparta, Ga., April 22, 1883. 
Rev. John Jones, D.D., Atlanta, Ga. 

Dear Sir: Yours of 16th instant to hand. You request my es- 
timate of the Christian character of Gov. A. H. Stephens, based 
on personal reminiscences. 

During the three years (1871-'72-'73), it was my privilege to 
l>e often the gnest of his boundless hospitality and beneficiary of 
his sage counsels, and have certainly a deep impression of the gen- 
uineness of his Christian character. Crawfordville was the centre 
of my first circuit as an itinerant Methodist preacher. For twen- 
ty-five years the Methodists had had neither church-building nor 
society at that place. The fact that the writer was a very timid 
hoy, just starting in his life-work, without a church to preach in, 
or membership to entertain or encourage him, was sufficient to 
evoke the sympathy of this great Christian statesman — so great 
because so truly Christian. 

" Bird's Chapel," the neat Methodist Church now in the front 
yard of " Liberty Hall," at Crawfordville, was built at that time 
largely by his munificence, and named by him for Rev. Wil- 
liamson Bird, a Methodist preacher, whose memory he cherished 
with affection and reverence. After the writer had secured, through 
the liberal subscription of and letter of introduction from Mr. 
Stephens, sulfitrient funds to commence the erection of this church, 
he saw that if 1 had to purchase an eligible site, I would be em- 
barrassed at once; hence, unlike any one else, he proffered a place 
in his front yard. Thus it can be seen that the many conversa- 



^lexantlfr Pamiltan ^^tcirheiDS. 81 



tions he had with rae grew out of his interest in my special work — 
not so much as a friend talks to a friend, but as a father would 
counsel his son. In this spirit, I remember he once very fully 
unbosomed to me the principles of his religious creed, and some of 
the facts of his Christian experience. I cannot reproduce his 
words, but he gave the unqualified assent of his great mind to the 
Divine inspiration of the Bible — that he kept it near him and read 
it as a letter from his Heavenly Father. He based his hopes of 
heaven on his personal trust in Christ as '' the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world." He discoursed at length on 
the power of prayer as one of the greatest moral and spiritual 
forces in the universe of God ; that it was, in itself, a Divine law, 
and that results followed it as invariably as effect follows cause. 
As an illustration, he said he knew a great religious awakening 
would take place in his town, because he had noticed a few faith- 
ful Christians going daily to the church near his house to pray for 
that very object. This led him to speak of the comfort and effi- 
cacy of prayer in his own heart and life. When in the library, 
near his bed-room door, early one morning, I heard this good and 
great man engaged in what seemed to me fervent prayer and praise 
to God. If Solomon was arrayed in divinest glory when lifting 
his hands in prayer in the temple to the God of his father, David, 
so in no position in the wonderful life of Alexander H. Stephens 
was he so truly great as when on his knees before the God of his 
sainted mother. 

I am respectfully and fraternally yours, 

A. C. Thomas. 



Marietta, Ga., April 27, 1883. 
Dear Brother Jones : Several years ago — it could not have been 
less than eight, as near as I remember — Colonel J. D. Waddell 
invited me to accompany him to Crawfordville to see the late Gov- 
ernor A. H. Stephens, who was then prostrated by a severe, and it 
was then thought, fatal illness. 



82 itt Pftttoty. 



We arrived at Liberty Hall late iu the afternoon, and were im- 
mediately ushered into the sick-room, where lay Mr. Stephens, 
apparently in the lowest stage of physical weakness. His favorite 
servant, Harry, was feeding him with a spoon, he being unable to 
feed himself. The conversation was general, and though Mr. 
Stephens was so weak in body, his conversation showed that his 
mind was as vigorous as ever. We were soon called to supper, 
and after the repast was over, I went into the parlor, where were 
gathered quite a number of guests. About an hour after, a ser- 
vant came to me and said that Mr. Stephens wished to see me in 
his room. I again entered his sick-room, and found no one pres- 
ent but the patient and Harry. There was a chair close to the 
bed, and, pointing to it, Mr. Stephens begged me to be seated. 
He said he had called for me that he might speak to me alone of 
his religious belief. He remarked that he thought he had strength 
enough to talk for at least a quarter of an hour, and that he would 
occupy all the time himself. He began by saying, as nearly as I 
can now remember, that he believed implicitly in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and that all his hopes rested upon the sacrifice and merits 
of his Redeemer. There had been times, he observed, when the 
doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ had caused him some diffi- 
culty, but that all doubts on this subject had fled. 

His conversation showed that he had studied the subject pro- 
foundly. He went back to the earliest history of the Christian 
church, speaking of the various councils held, their names, dates, 
decrees — showing an accurate knowledge of church history. He 
expressed a readiness to die if God so willed ; and he made the 
impression on my mind that he thought his end was near. He 
continued his conversation uninterrupted for at least a half hour, 
and stopped because his strength failed. He then asked me to 
pray with him, saying that only Harry was present, who was a 
good Christian, belonging to the Methodist Church. During the 
prayer Harry responded warmly to every petition which particu- 
larly touched Mr. Stephens' case. 

I left Crawford ville the next day, and had no further religious 
conversation with him. The impression which Mr. Stephens made 



§itexattd«t itamilt0tt ^tcph^ujs. 83 



upon my mind during this half hour's interview with him, was 
that his faith in Christ was not merely intellectual, but genuine 
and heartfelt. 

I have nothing more to add, except to give you an extract from 
Mr. Stephens' letter to Colonel Waddell, upon the reception of a 
printed copy of the sermon preached at the funeral of Colonel 
Waddell's wife. He writes from Washington City, under date of 
May 1st, 1880. In the conclusion of his letter, he says: 

"But, my dear friend, the perusal of the sermon filled me with 
sadness. It impressed me more deeply with the consciousness of 
the transitory nature of all things earthly. Mrs. Waddell has but 
departed in advance of lamenting friends. All of us must in our 
turn soon follow. Well may we singly exclaim as we go : May 
our last end be like hers." 

Very truly yours, D. L. Buttolph. 



Lexington, April 30th, 1883. 
Rev. J, Jones, 

Dear Sir : Your card requesting a brief statement of what Gov. 
Stephens said to me about the last hours and death of Mr. John 
Bird, has been received. 

Hon. A. H. Stephens sent for me to preach the funeral of Mr. 
Bird, who died at Liberty Hall. I knew Mr. Bird intimately. 
He was not at all religious, but was the perfection of a noble and 
truthful manhood. I felt great embarrassment in complying with 
the wishes of Mr. Stephens, as I supposed Mr. Bird had died as 
he lived. I asked Mr. Stephens if there was anything in Mr. B.'s 
last illness that I might refer to, that would comfort his friends. 
To my great relief and surprise, he said : " Why, Echols, I think 
John Bird died a penitent. Let me tell you what occurred. When 
our physician. Dr. Alfriend, saw he must die, he said to me, ' You 
must tell John he cannot live much longer; and if he has any 
requests to make or preparation for the future, he must do it now.' 
I went into his room, and walked around his bed. John, looking 



84 in pcmoty. 



at me intently, sairl, * Aleck ' (as he always called me), * I know 
what is the matter; Dr. Alfriend has told you I must die.' 'Yes, 
John,' I replied, 'and I do hope you will try and get ready for it.' 
He said to me, * Aleck, do you think it would be treating God 
Almighty right to pretend that I want to be religious, and spend 
the few hours that I have left in praying to Him, when I have 
spent all my life in the service of the devil?' I said to him, 
' John, if God is willing to save you, ought you not to be willing 
to be saved?' *Of course,' he said, 'but I cannot do anything 
now.' I replied, 'If Christ should save you, would He not get 
the credit of it?' 'Yes, indeed!' 'Well, John, who ought to 
have the credit of it ? Did not Christ die for sinners ?' He caught 
this reasonable proposition, and showed signs of emotion, and said 
to me, ' Aleck, I wish you would pray for me !' I told him I 
would do what was better — I would read to him the word of God. 
I read many passages to him, and he seemed to take hold of the 
truth, became very sorrowful for his past sins, trusted his soul to 
Christ alone, and died, as I said before, a penitent." 

The above is a recital of the most successful instance of pointing 
a sinner to Christ I ever heard of. No theologian, however wise, 
could have surpassed the great statesman in leading his young 
friend unto salvation. 

Yours truly, J. H. Echols. 



Such was Alexander Hamilton Stephens. His personal faith 
found peace in a divine Redeemer ; his Christian charity embraced 
God's people of every name ; and his tender pity pointed the per- 
ishing to the Lamb of God ! J. J. 



54 W 



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